The Mayo Clinic has agreed to pay $1.26 million to settle a federal lawsuit that accused it of billing the government for thousands of lab tests that were never performed. The U.S. Department of Justice and four whistleblowers had accused the Rochester clinic of "knowingly" submitting false claims for nonexistent pathology tests over a period of eight years, from 1999 to 2007. "Billing government health programs for services never rendered-- as Mayo allegedly did -- is totally unacceptable," said Lamont Pugh III, of the Office of Inspector General of Health and Human Services, in a statement released Thursday.

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Star Tribune by Maura Lerner

Tags: false claims, federal lawsuit, Inspector General of Health and Human Servces, Lamont Pugh III, Legal / Leadership, Mayo Clinic Rochester, Star Tribune, U.S. Department of Justice