Tampa Pharmacy Faces $17M Penalty Over Alleged False Medicare Claims for COVID-19 Testing

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A Tampa-based pharmacy has reached a settlement to pay over $17 million after facing allegations of submitting fraudulent Medicare claims for over-the-counter COVID-19 tests.

The U.S. Department of Justice for the Middle District of Florida reported that VRA Enterprises, LLC, operating as Precision Rx, allegedly billed Medicare for COVID-19 tests that were either not provided to beneficiaries or dispatched months following the billing period, spanning from August 2022 to May 2023.

Legal representatives revealed that VRA submitted around 136,491 claims to Medicare for COVID-19 tests that were not delivered to beneficiaries until April 2023.

VRA internally acknowledged multiple times that it had billed Medicare for tests it had failed to ship, recommending immediate refunds to Medicare for those tests, according to the Department of Justice. However, these refunds were not processed. Consequently, the United States government asserts that VRA knowingly submitted, or facilitated the submission of, false claims to the Medicare program, thereby breaching the False Claims Act.

The pharmacy received thousands of complaints from beneficiaries about missing over-the-counter COVID-19 tests, the DOJ said.

“The Department of Justice has been vocal in prioritizing the pursuit of civil fraud cases against providers that raided federal health programs during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe. “This settlement is an excellent example of our district’s commitment to meeting this important challenge.”