A Florida man pleaded guilty on Jan. 15 for his role in a scheme to defraud Medicare by submitting over $52 million in false and fraudulent claims for genetic testing that Medicare beneficiaries did not need and that were based on prescriptions purchased through illegal kickbacks and bribes. According to court documents, Sean Alterman, 38, of Lake Worth, Florida, owned and operated two laboratories, Live Beyond Medical MGMT, LLC and Dynix Diagnostics LLC, through which he purchased doctors’ orders for expensive genetic testing from patient recruiters. The patient recruiters ran deceptive telemarketing campaigns that targeted Medicare beneficiaries and persuaded them to agree to take the tests to justify the fraudulent billing. As part of the scheme, the patient recruiters used a tactic known as “doctor chasing” — faxing physicians false and misleading requests for prescriptions designed to trick them into signing off on tests their patients did not need. Alterman’s laboratories billed approximately $52 million to Medicare for the false and fraudulent claims, of which Medicare paid approximately $36 million.