Two men from Texas and Florida were sentenced Thursday for orchestrating a scheme that pushed Medicare beneficiaries into unnecessary genetic tests, a fraud that siphoned millions from the federal health program, according to officials.
Paul Wexler, 56, of Spring, Texas, was sentenced to four years in federal prison. His co-defendant, Paul Bleignier, 64, of Seminole, Fla., received a two-year sentence, along with an additional two years for falsifying ownership information on Medicare enrollment forms for a clinical laboratory. The extra term will run concurrently.
Prosecutors said the men ran a telemarketing company that targeted Medicare recipients for cancer genetic, or CGx, testing — screenings designed to identify hereditary cancer risk, not diagnose existing disease. Medicare covers such tests only in narrow circumstances.
According to court records, the pair solicited kickbacks for referring beneficiaries to laboratories willing to bill Medicare for tests that did not meet coverage criteria.
The scheme generated $17.3 million in Medicare claims and resulted in $5.2 million in payouts to Wexler, Bleignier and their co-conspirators, authorities said.
Even as the genetic-testing case moved forward, Bleignier opened a clinical lab and enrolled it in Medicare, hiding his ownership by using other people’s identities — a violation of federal disclosure rules requiring anyone with at least a 5% interest to be listed.
Claims from the lab were also tied to kickbacks, prosecutors said. Bleignier and others submitted more than $3 million in ineligible claims and collected $916,106.
Wexler pleaded guilty in April 2024 to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud. Bleignier entered guilty pleas in 2022 for conspiracy to defraud the United States and to pay and receive kickbacks, and in 2024 for making false statements related to health care matters.
At sentencing, each man was ordered to forfeit $1.2 million and pay $5.2 million in restitution. Bleignier must forfeit an additional $916,106 for the lab-ownership scheme.