State and Raleigh laboratory company agree on a $2.1 million settlement

(The Center Square) – North Carolina’s Department of Justice, on behalf of the citizenry, reached a $2.1 million settlement with a Raleigh medical lab company is says submitted false Medicaid claims.

Mako Medical Laboratories performs urine drug testing and other tests, the state said in its release.

“Labs that receive Medicaid funds need to be responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars,” Attorney General Josh Stein said in a statement. “When they waste health care resources, my office will hold them accountable. I’m pleased that the Medicaid program will get these funds back.”

Mako was accused of offering health care providers both “presumptive” and “definitive” urine drug tests, the state said.

“A presumptive test detects the general presence of a substance, and a definitive test determines the precise amounts of a substance,” the release said. “For providers who ordered both tests, Mako performed them on the same sample at or near the same time, for the same or similar substances.”

Definitive testing “was not medically necessary or reasonable under North Carolina Medicaid policy, the state said.

The state’s Medicaid Investigations Division uses data mining to identify and prosecute health care fraud, the news release said.

“It should be noted that the civil claims resolved by settlement here are allegations only, and that there has been no judicial determination or admission of liability,” it said.