Two men who ran a telemarketing operation that steered Medicare beneficiaries into medically unnecessary cancer genetic testing have been sentenced, and authorities say the scheme cost federal programs millions.
Federal prosecutors announced prison terms for two leaders tied to a marketing company that targeted Medicare recipients for cancer genetic, or CGx, tests that were not medically required. One defendant from Texas drew a four-year sentence while a Florida defendant was given two years behind bars, plus an additional concurrent two-year term related to falsified Medicare enrollment information.
Investigators say the pair ran a telemarketing operation that recruited Medicare beneficiaries for CGx testing, a service that analyzes DNA to flag mutations linked to higher future cancer risk. CGx testing is not a tool for diagnosing existing cancer and Medicare only pays for it in limited, specific cases, but the operation pushed tests where coverage did not apply.
Prosecutors described the scheme as involving kickbacks: the marketing operation received payments for steering beneficiaries to certain testing providers in exchange for referrals. According to court records, Wexler and Bleignier caused Medicare to be billed $17.3 million and personally collected about $5.2 million in improper payments tied to those referrals.
While the CGx fraud case was still active, the Florida defendant opened a clinical laboratory and enrolled it in Medicare, which requires disclosure of anyone holding a 5 percent or greater ownership stake. Officials say he concealed his involvement by submitting enrollment paperwork that listed other people’s identities instead of his own, and the lab’s claims were compromised by the same kickback scheme.
That laboratory’s billing alone amounted to $3,012,156 in claims deemed ineligible for reimbursement, and payments from those tainted claims totaled $916,106, according to the filings. The false ownership filings brought separate criminal exposure on top of the fraud and kickback charges tied to the telemarketing operation.
Plea records show that Paul Wexler, 56, of Spring, Texas, pleaded guilty in April 2024 to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud. Paul Bleignier, 64, of Seminole, Florida, entered earlier guilty pleas: in November 2022 to conspiracy to defraud the United States and to pay and receive kickbacks, and in November 2024 to making false statements related to health care matters.
At sentencing both men were ordered to forfeit $1.2 million each and to pay $5.2 million in restitution tied to the broader fraud. Bleignier also faced an additional forfeiture order of $916,106 related to the falsified Medicare enrollment documentation for the clinical laboratory he had opened.
The Department of Justice credited several officials with the announcement and investigators from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, along with the FBI, led the case work. Trial Attorney Charles D. Strauss of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section handled prosecution of the matter in court.
The Fraud Section emphasized that the case reflects the work of the Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program, which coordinates criminal enforcement across federal districts. Since March 2007 the program, made up of multiple strike forces operating in dozens of districts, has charged thousands of defendants in schemes that collectively billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $30 billion.
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