Raleigh-based Mako Medical to pay $2.1M to settle unnecessary Medicaid billing claim

Mako Medical, a Raleigh-based lab-testing company, has agreed to pay the state $2.1 million after state investigators identified unnecessary Medicaid billing for urine drug tests over five years.

“Labs that receive Medicaid funds need to be responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars,” state Attorney General Josh Stein said in a news release Thursday. “When they waste health care resources, my office will hold them accountable. I’m pleased that the Medicaid program will get these funds back.”

Between Jan. 1, 2018, and Dec. 31, 2022, Mako allegedly gave health care providers the option to order two urine drug tests for patients, which were conducted on the same sample at or near the same time, Stein’s press release says. But only one was medically necessary under North Carolina Medicaid Policy, the release says.

As a result, “Mako was reimbursed for funds it was not otherwise entitled to receive,” it states.

Mako officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

The Medicaid Investigations Division’s civil unit identified the unnecessary payments by reviewing Medicaid billing data, said Nazneen Ahmed, a spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office

Campaign contributions

Mako Medical was founded in 2014 by CEO Chad Price and COO Josh Arant. It grew dramatically during the pandemic by landing testing contracts for Covid-19 in North Carolina and across much of the United States.

The $2.1 million settlement is not connected to a Medicaid investigation Stein’s office conducted into Mako that The News & Observer reported in 2020, Ahmed said.

After The N&O inquired about that investigation, Stein’s office reported that the attorney general donated $12,400 in Mako-related campaign contributions to charity to “underscore his commitment to the integrity of (NC Department of Justice) investigations.”

Stein said in an interview then he was unaware Mako was being investigated when he received the contributions. He is now the Democratic nominee for governor, running against Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson in the November election.

Those contributions were among roughly $560,000 in campaign money that Mako CEO Chad Price, his family and business associates had given to federal, state and local candidates over five years.

The N&O had confirmed five of those contributions were in the name of Price’s sister, Jessica, who was born with a genetic condition that left her with the mental capacity of a young child. None of the contributions in her name were to Stein’s campaign.

Those contributions prompted an SBI investigation in North Carolina, Axios and WBTV first reported. Inquiries in Kentucky and West Virginia were closed without any penalty. South Carolina fined Chad Price $20,000 for illegal contributions that he claimed came from his businesses.

The Federal Election Commission deadlocked on whether to take action against Mako for giving money to a congressional candidate in the name of his disabled sister.