For Immediate Release:
Friday, August 4, 2023
Contact: Nazneen Ahmed
919-716-0060
(RALEIGH) Attorney General Josh Stein today announced that Aspirar Medical Lab LLC in Cary and its owner Pick Chay have agreed to pay $1,951,090 to resolve allegations that they violated the law by billing the North Carolina Medicaid program for unnecessary urine drug tests and paying illegal kickbacks for these tests.
“My office will hold accountable health care companies that waste money intended to improve the health of North Carolinians,” said Attorney General Josh Stein. “I’m grateful for the state and federal partnership to protect taxpayers.”
Aspirar allegedly paid two companies for each urine drug test that they referred to Aspirar. It was also alleged that these tests were medically unnecessary where they were not patient-specific and did not reflect an appropriate determination of the patient’s need for the test. Aspirar submitted these clams to Medicaid from March 2016 to September 2017.
The investigation and prosecution of this case was conducted in partnership with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina, the FBI in Charlotte, and the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
About the Medicaid Investigations Division (MID)
The Attorney General’s MID investigates and prosecutes health care providers that defraud the Medicaid program, patient abuse of Medicaid recipients, patient abuse of any patient in facilities that receive Medicaid funding, and misappropriation of any patients’ private funds in nursing homes that receive Medicaid funding.
To date, the MID has recovered more than $1 billion in restitution and penalties for North Carolina. To report Medicaid fraud or patient abuse in North Carolina, call the MID at 919-881-2320. The MID receives 75 percent of its funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under a grant award totaling $6,106,236 for Federal fiscal year (FY) 2022. The remaining 25 percent, totaling $2,035,412 for FY 2022, is funded by the State of North Carolina.
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