Justin Drew Hanson, the co-owner of Noah Associates, a clinical laboratory in Milwaukee, was sentenced to nearly two years in federal prison for violating the Anti-Kickback Statute, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Wisconsin announced Monday.
In addition to his prison sentence, Hanson was ordered to pay over $2 million in restitution to Medicaid and Medicare and a $75,000 fine. Hanson and co-defendant Mohammed Kazim Ali were involved in a scheme where they paid more than $400,000 in bribes to a substance use treatment clinic owner in exchange for patient referrals for unnecessary urine drug testing.
The tests, conducted by Noah Associates between 2017 and 2020, were neither ordered by physicians nor medically necessary. As a result, Medicaid and Medicare paid the lab more than $2.2 million for fraudulent services. Hanson personally received hundreds of thousands of dollars as part of the scheme.
Richard G. Frohling, acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, stated, “Mr. Hanson’s kickbacks resulted in Medicaid and Medicare – and taxpayers – repeatedly paying for unnecessary services.” He further emphasized the U.S. Attorney’s commitment to holding individuals accountable for such fraudulent schemes.
As part of the sentence, Hanson is excluded from future participation in Medicare and Medicaid programs. Noah Associates has since been shut down. Ali, the co-defendant, was sentenced to 15 months in prison earlier this year after pleading guilty to paying health care kickbacks.
