Baton Rouge medical testing center raided was part of 'largest health care fraud schemes ever'

BATON ROUGE – The manager of a medical testing company raided by the FBI this week was paying doctors to refer patients – mostly elderly – to his clinic for medically unnecessary cancer tests, the federal government said.

Kevin Hanley, 42, was charged in the $2.1 billion fraud scheme, agents revealed Friday, just days after WBRZ recorded video of investigators searching Hanley’s business in Baton Rouge.

Hanley, who lives in Prairieville, is the CFO of the Acadian Diagnostic Laboratories on Justice Avenue, off Sherwood Forest just south of I-12.

In all, 35 people were charged in schemes that focused on Medicare beneficiaries, the federal government said.

Hanley and the group are charged, according to the US Attorney, of soliciting the tests from government-backed insurance customers, had the tests approved by telemedicine doctors who did not engage in treatment of the beneficiaries and submit claims through clinical testing laboratories that paid kickbacks in exchange for the referrals.

Agents said Hanley paid kickbacks to companies controlled by others charged in the scheme to obtain the referrals and submitted claims to Medicare for the tests.

Acadian and other labs billed Medicare for more than $240 million.

The phone at Acadian Diagnostic went unanswered Wednesday, the day of the raid, when WBRZ called for comment.

Another company in Louisiana, Lazarus Services, was also accused of being a part of the scheme, the government said.

In a news release, the federal government called the case the largest health care fraud schemes ever charged.

Among those charged are 10 medical professionals, including nine doctors.

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