Five defendants, including healthcare executives, were found guilty of a kickback conspiracy scheme.
The group was convicted for a conspiracy in which physicians were given kickbacks in return for referrals to two Texas hospitals — Rockdale-based Little River Healthcare and Stamford Memorial Hospital — and a connecting lab, Boston Heart Diagnostics in Framingham, Mass., according to a Nov. 30 news release from the Justice Department.
The lab would process blood tests while hospitals billed the tests to payers as hospital outpatient services, charging insurers a much higher rate.
Along with the kickbacks, which were disguised as investment returns, marketers were incentivized to set up services from the facilities.
Here are the five people who were convicted Nov. 30:
- Susan Hertzberg, former CEO of Boston Heart Diagnostics
- Matthew Theiler, former vice president of sales of Boston Heart
- David Kraus, former regional sales director for Boston Heart
- Thomas Hardaway, co-owner and operator of LGRB Management Services, also named as a defendant in the case
- Jeffrey Madison, former CEO of LGRB Management Services