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Gwinnett lab implicated in Tennessee ‘pill mill’ indictment

Federal prosecutors in Tennessee claim Gwinnett County drug testing lab Confirmatrix paid kickbacks and bribes to get the testing contracts for Medicare and Medicaid clients in suspected “pill mill” operations in and around Knoxville, which wrote medically unnecessary prescriptions for addictive pain medications like OxyContin, seen here in a 2013 file image. LIZ O. BAYLEN / LOS ANGELES TIMES / TNS
Federal prosecutors in Tennessee claim Gwinnett County drug testing lab Confirmatrix paid kickbacks and bribes to get the testing contracts for Medicare and Medicaid clients in suspected “pill mill” operations in and around Knoxville, which wrote medically unnecessary prescriptions for addictive pain medications like OxyContin, seen here in a 2013 file image. LIZ O. BAYLEN / LOS ANGELES TIMES / TNS
By
Sept 8, 2017

Federal prosecutors in Tennessee say a Gwinnett County drug testing lab paid bribes and kickbacks and filed fraudulent reimbursement requests to the state and federal government.

But no one from Lawrenceville-based Confirmatrix Labs has been charged, despite a lingering federal interest in the urinalysis lab and its founder, Khalid Satary.

The indictment filed in East Tennessee stems from an alleged network of "pill mills" in and around Knoxville that federal prosecutors say dispensed opioid pain medication to people who didn't need it and stuck taxpayers with the bill for mandatory urine tests. Allegedly Confirmatrix paid kickbacks to two pill mill operators, who are the targets of the indictment, to get exclusive access to their Medicare and Medicaid patients.

Attorneys for Confirmatrix and Satary declined to comment on the allegations contained in the indictment. The FBI raided Confirmatrix, which is in bankruptcy and up for auction, last November.

ExploreRead more in this week’s AJC Watchdog here.

About the Author

Joyner is the deputy politics editor. He has been with the AJC since 2010 as a member of the investigations and politics team.

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