Connecticut Lab and Owners to Pay More Than $1.2 Million to Settle False Claims Act Allegations

Press Releases

08/13/2025

Connecticut Lab and Owners to Pay More Than $1.2 Million to Settle False Claims Act Allegations

(Hartford, CT) — Attorney General William Tong today announced that Genco Lab, LLC and its owners and officers, Paul Conroy, Tricia Conroy, and Charles Orefice, have entered into a civil settlement agreement with the federal and state governments and agreed to pay more than $1.2 million to settle allegations that they submitted false and fraudulent claims to government health care programs for medically unnecessary urine drug tests.

Genco Lab is a reference laboratory with offices in Branford. Paul Conroy is the majority owner, Charles Orefice is a part owner, and Tricia Conroy is the Chief Operating Officer.

The government alleges that Genco and its owners and officers violated the federal and state False Claims Acts in two ways. First, they submitted claims for medically unnecessary urine drug tests for Medicare and Connecticut Medicaid beneficiaries residing in sobor homes solely for the purposes of “residential monitoring,” which was explicitly prohibited. Second, they submitted claims for medically unnecessary duplicative urine drug testing.

There are several different types of urine drug testing. A screening test, also called a “presumptive” test, detects the presence or absence of certain classes of drugs, such as opiates, cocaine, and amphetamines. A screening test does not measure the specific amount of the drug present in the patient’s urine sample, but provides only a positive or a negative result, indicating the presence or absence of a detectable drug. A confirmation test, also known as a “definitive” test, is a more precise and more expensive test that determines not only whether a particular drug is detectable in a patient’s urine sample, but also the specific quantity of the drug that is detected.

The government alleges that Genco and its owners and officers routinely conducted testing on Connecticut Medicaid and Medicare patients using both types of tests, at the same time, on the same day. No practitioner reviewed the results of the screening test first to determine if it was medically necessary to also utilize the more expensive and precise definitive test. Accordingly, government health care programs were routinely billed for both types each time a Connecticut Medicaid or Medicare patient was tested.

“For two years, Genco repeatedly billed Connecticut Medicaid for these medically unnecessary urine tests,” Attorney General Tong said. “My office stands ready, with our federal and state partners, to take strong action against anyone who misuses our state’s Medicaid program to the detriment of both taxpayers and patients.”

To resolve the governments’ False Claims Act allegations, Genco and its owners and officers have agreed to pay $1,255,825 which covers the time-period from September 2021 through December 2023.

Genco, Paul Conroy, Charles Orefice, and Tricia Conroy have also entered into a Compliance Agreement with the Connecticut Department of Social Services which requires Genco to adopt and implement a new compliance program and return any overpayments found by an independent auditor in a series of audits to be conducted over the next 18 months.

This matter was investigated by the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut, the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services, the Connecticut Attorney General’s Office, and the Connecticut Department of Social Services.

Forensic Fraud Examiner Lisa Bailey, Paralegal Orlean Woodham, Assistant Attorney General Christine Miller, and Deputy Associate Attorney General Gregory O’Connell, Chief of the Government Fraud Section, assisted the Attorney General with this matter.

Anyone with knowledge of suspected fraud or abuse in the public healthcare system is asked to contact the Attorney General’s Government Fraud Section at 860-808-5040 or by email at ag.fraud@ct.gov; the Connecticut Medicaid Fraud Control Unit at 860-258-5986 or by email at conndcj@ct.gov; or the Connecticut Department of Social Services fraud reporting hotline at 1-800-842-2155, online at www.ct.gov/dss/reportingfraud, or by email to providerfraud.dss@ct.gov.

Twitter: @AGWilliamTong

Facebook: CT Attorney General

Media Contact:

Elizabeth Benton
elizabeth.benton@ct.gov

Consumer Inquiries:

860-808-5318
attorney.general@ct.gov