Two men plead guilty in a medical kickback case in Dallas where doctors steered patients to certain hospitals and were paid for it, according to the Dallas Morning News.
The owners of the Next Health network of pharmacies, Andrew Hillman, 42, and Semyon Narosov, 54, gave people $50 gift cards to urinate in cups at Whataburger bathrooms. The urine was sent for superfluous testing at Next Health labs acting as a wellness study, according to the DMN. The allegations came to light from a 2017 lawsuit in which United Healthcare sued Next Health for $100 million.
Hillman and Narosov admitted that Next Health billed $450 million between 2012 and 2018 to both private and government insurance plans and made $150 million in fraudulent profits. The men also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and to their role in a $200 million doctor kickback scheme in connection to the now closed Forest Park Medical Center, which could result in 15 years in prison.
As part of the agreement, prosecutors dropped charges that the men used a California marijuana dispensary they purchased to send drugs to Texas, the DMN reports.
