Addiction Clinic, Lab, Doctors Pay $15.75 Million

The U.S. Government announced that SelfRefind, a chain of addiction treatment clinics, PremierTox LLC, a clinical laboratory that performs urine testing, and two physicians owners of SelfRefind and PremierTox (Drs. Bryan Wood and Robin Peavler) have agreed to pay $15.75 million to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by submitting claims to Medicare and Kentucky’s Medicaid program for drug tests that were medically unnecessary, more expensive than those performed or billed in violation of the Stark Law. SelfRefind operates a chain of addiction treatment clinics that provide services to Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries at 12 locations across Kentucky. The owners of SelfRefind, Drs. Wood and Peavler, each purchased a 20 percent ownership stake in PremierTox, a clinical laboratory created to perform urine drug testing. According to the government’s allegations, after Wood and Peavler became owners of PremierTox, SelfRefind began referring comprehensive urine drug screening tests to PremierTox that were unnecessary and many times more expensive than other suitable alternative tests. The government also alleged that PremierTox submitted to Medicare and Medicaid inflated claims that misidentified the class of drug being tested and billed for tests that were referred by SelfRefind in violation of the Stark law. The Stark allegations stem from billings by SelfRefind billings to Medicare and Medicaid for lab services that were referred by Drs. Wood and Peavler, who have a financial relationship with PremierTox laboratory.