Calloway Labs Indicted

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Did you see the press on Calloway using the whistleblower law to attack Avee, Ameritox, Millennium, and Aegis for supporting docs using POCs?

http://www.pharmaservice.net/Le_por...actu-pharma/actu-pharma-detaille.php?id=51255

It's one thing to file a suit when there's a legitimate fraud going on - it's another entirely to use this law as a way to attack their competition.

I'd never believe this if I hadn't seen Calloway's own criminal issues going on for the last couple of years.
 






Do you think Calloway is the problem? Lets review - all of these other lab companies - except for AIT and Calloway are riping off the health care industry. Let us review: the doctor does a screen in the office and bills the insurance company for that screen - either the correct way - by using one code for the test or by unbundling the device and charging the insurance company for X number of screens (which is incorrect coding based on the new regulations unless the office has an analyzer which is highly complex). Once the sample is screened in the office - these lab companies convince the poor doctors office to send in all the samples to them to do confirmation testing. These lab companies then do confirmations on 10 - 15 drugs - eventhough the screen in the doctors office didn't warrent those tests to be done. The poor doctors office is now ordering unnecessary testing. There are no published studies that prove doing confirmations on negative urine tests is warrented. The bills to the insurance companies from these labs are outrageous - over $1000 for a urine test that is negative. Plus the doctors office did their own screening for a couple hundred dollars - a negative urine test for over $1200 and lets test this poor patient 3 - 4 times per year. If the doctors office used a lab that does traditional testing that bill to the insurance company would only have been $200 - $300 total. Hummm - who do you think is going to take the fall for this - the lab companies or the doctors office? Probably the doctors office because they ordered the test.


To be clear - I am not saying that the doctors office shouldn't try to maximize their revenue - I think they should make sure they know everything there is to know about their Lab partner's business model - how they do their testing and what they bill for. They should only be requesting confirmations on the positive results on their in office screens. Additionally some of these confirmation tests are being billed as the only test - a confirmation test is a secondary test not a primary test. The insurance companies are becoming wise to this and will stop this practice unfortunately at the expense of the doctors offices.

The patients and the insurance companies are getting financially abused - believe me I am a well educated patient. I have spoken to my insurance company about it.

The whole industry is seedy and needs to be regulated - hopefully the national audits will stop this lets get rich doing urine drug screens all the way around.
 






Anonymous said:
Do you think Calloway is the problem? Lets review - all of these other lab companies - except for AIT and Calloway are riping off the health care industry. Let us review: the doctor does a screen in the office and bills the insurance company for that screen - either the correct way - by using one code for the test or by unbundling the device and charging the insurance company for X number of screens (which is incorrect coding based on the new regulations unless the office has an analyzer which is highly complex). Once the sample is screened in the office - these lab companies convince the poor doctors office to send in all the samples to them to do confirmation testing. These lab companies then do confirmations on 10 - 15 drugs - eventhough the screen in the doctors office didn't warrent those tests to be done. The poor doctors office is now ordering unnecessary testing. There are no published studies that prove doing confirmations on negative urine tests is warrented. The bills to the insurance companies from these labs are outrageous - over $1000 for a urine test that is negative. Plus the doctors office did their own screening for a couple hundred dollars - a negative urine test for over $1200 and lets test this poor patient 3 - 4 times per year. If the doctors office used a lab that does traditional testing that bill to the insurance company would only have been $200 - $300 total. Hummm - who do you think is going to take the fall for this - the lab companies or the doctors office? Probably the doctors office because they ordered the test.


To be clear - I am not saying that the doctors office shouldn't try to maximize their revenue - I think they should make sure they know everything there is to know about their Lab partner's business model - how they do their testing and what they bill for. They should only be requesting confirmations on the positive results on their in office screens. Additionally some of these confirmation tests are being billed as the only test - a confirmation test is a secondary test not a primary test. The insurance companies are becoming wise to this and will stop this practice unfortunately at the expense of the doctors offices.

The patients and the insurance companies are getting financially abused - believe me I am a well educated patient. I have spoken to my insurance company about it.

The whole industry is seedy and needs to be regulated - hopefully the national audits will stop this lets get rich doing urine drug screens all the way around.
Click to expand...

Why don't you ask the Premier Fraud guy in KY what they charge. The # listed above is no where close to theirs........$$$$$$$$$
 






Anonymous said:
Did you see the press on Calloway using the whistleblower law to attack Avee, Ameritox, Millennium, and Aegis for supporting docs using POCs?

http://www.pharmaservice.net/Le_por...actu-pharma/actu-pharma-detaille.php?id=51255

It's one thing to file a suit when there's a legitimate fraud going on - it's another entirely to use this law as a way to attack their competition.

I'd never believe this if I hadn't seen Calloway's own criminal issues going on for the last couple of years.
Click to expand...

"Many physicians conduct drug testing at point of care; including Calloway’s customers. At the heart of this issue is Millennium’s position that physicians should be fairly reimbursed for performing drug testing at their point of care vs. the position that Calloway takes – that they should not,” Mr. Appel stated. "

The above is a quote from the rebuttal: The point of Care Device costs on average $7 and was billed for on average $300 without factoring staff time and billing time this is a 4200% profit margin with staff time and billing time the total costs is about $20.. this is a 1500% profit margin.. How is this a fair reimbursement for insurance companies that are funded by tax payers, companies and private citizens?
I need to become a pain management physician if the "fair" reimbursements are like this
 






Anonymous said:
Do you think doctors give a shit about HPLC or GC/MS? Try getting into a discussion about HPLC and see how far your conversation goes. They are worried more about how much medicare will reimburse them for the screens. The heydays of the full service labs are over. They are tired of dealing with the poor service and greed from the these lab companies. This is why the big pain offices are buying their own units and billing out for the screens.
Click to expand...

How is a doctor buying an instrument like a tabletop immunoassay, referring / sending their patients specimens to it and billing the lab work for a profit not a violation of the Stark Laws?
 






What about all the other violation that is going on inside this company,you cannot get anywhere,unless you are part of the crew,there are Nepotism,favortism and Racism going on as well
 






Callowaylabs Guilty and more to come

Read and all of you happy people and employees of Calloway knew it, took your paycheck and violated well stated laws, you took from the poor, jeopardized people health , abused the addicted vulnerable, pain care is a disease, from cancer to any ailment that creates pain. Spend your commissions well as you will have no health insurance. To the other 49 States, stand up, be counted and do the work MA did. You will save millions, allow healthcare money to be spent responsibly and save your damns asses. How many millions of dollars of fraud need be alllowed so those with no insurance must die for the 49 states stand up and be counted , Sales people are know targeted as an accessory to such fraud and will also be indicted, found guilty and will have no health insurance. Did you bank your wages and conmmissions? Hope so, not for you but for your families.

http://www.boston.com/Boston/whitec...-fraud-case/2GFlaKr1VK8j2tUn6kd6GN/index.html
 
























Re: Calloway Labs Indicted/Guilty

the state owns them those going to trial buried the money, will go to jail and those left will not have jobs as no one will ever do business with them as they will be guilty by association and nothing has changed since they opened in 2003. as an employee as of today, looking really quick for a job as they have not changed their practices, employees who figure it out quit or get fired.the stae will take years to figure out how much fraud id left and ongoing, damn the state took 2 years just to settle for 20 million and bring the owners to trial. The cash is gone. layoffs will happen very soon
 
























To the poor soul who said on 9/2/11 that there were no studies to support confirmation testing when immunoassay screening is negative, did you ever bother to do your homework? There are actually several scientific studies to support that. (Even if you don't know your way around toxicology literature, some are even published in free journals online.) Many drugs and metabolites are missed by poor immunoassay cross-reactivity and high thresholds.

I suggest studying up on your field before making any more egregiously wrong arguments!
 






lets see - you must be from one of the labs that is over billing the poor insurance companies and the poor unsuspecting patient. I had a urine test done at a pain clinic with a lab that did 15 confirmation tests. I do not take any medication. My test was negative, the confirmation test was negative and my insurance was billed $1200. I think the greed by lab companies in this industry is horrible. The clinic told me that if they did the test with Calloway the insurance would have been billed about $250 - still too much but much more reasonable. The doctor got paid, the lab got paid, I got a bill for a copay and I don't even take any meds. I reported this to my insurance company - claiming over testing and unnecessary testing. The insurance company told me that they are looking into this practice. This is very very abusive.
 






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