Federal investigators are looking into PerkinElmer's role in an alleged Medicare fraud centered around unnecessary cancer genetic tests, Reuters reports.
According to Reuters' sources, federal investigators are examining whether the company was aware that some tests it ran for certain clients were not medically necessary and were being billed to Medicare. Two of PerkinElmer's lab clients, including LabSolutions, have been charged in relation with alleged Medicare fraud, Reuters notes. LabSolutions' Minal Patel was indicted last year for fraud and other charges stemming from alleged fraudulent genetic cancer testing, as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution then reported.
Reuters says PerkinElmer's Madhuri Hegde is under particular scrutiny for her role in establishing the relationship between those labs charged with fraud and the company.
Hegde in an email to Reuters denies "any wrongdoing whatsoever." Additionally, PerkinElmer says in a statement that it "is not aware of, and has not received any information regarding, wrongdoing by PerkinElmer, as implied by Reuters, nor does PerkinElmer have any information that the Company or any of our personnel are the target of a government investigation."