Fraud trial begins for Mashpee screening lab

June 21--BOSTON -- A Mashpee drug-screening lab and its vice president netted more than $500,000 from the state in a Medicaid scam with two people convicted of fraud, the attorney's general office said Friday in Suffolk Superior Court.

Franey Medical Lab Inc. is charged with one count of Medicaid kickback, one count of making a false Medicaid claim and three counts of private health insurance kickbacks. Its vice president, Kathleen Franey-Lopes, faces the same charges as the lab. Franey-Lopes' father, Robert Franey, owns the lab and is appearing in court on its behalf.

Franey-Lopes was charged because she was the primary contact with Richard Ng, the former director of a Brighton drug abuse clinic who pleaded guilty in March in Suffolk Superior Court to multiple charges, including writing illegal prescriptions and making false Medicaid claims.

The state attorney general's office alleges that Franey Medical Lab received significant drug-screening business from Ng in exchange for paying the salaries of some members of Ng's staff who were relatives of Renee Andrews, the clinic's office manager at the time. Andrews pleaded guilty in February to a scheme in which she referred patients to drug-testing laboratories in exchange for kickbacks from the labs.

During his opening statement, Assistant Attorney General Brendan O'Shea said the employees Franey hired to collect specimens were performing tasks outside the scope of their duties or were not actually working despite being scheduled for 40 hours per week.

But the Franeys' attorneys, Augustus Wagner and Linda Wagner, said there was never any arrangement and employees were discharged when Franey-Lopes learned of possible misconduct.

The trial is scheduled to continue Monday.

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