Two American cardiovascular disease testing laboratories Singulex Inc and Health Diagnostics Laboratory Inc (HDL) are going to pay USD 48.5 million in order to settle the claims that they had paid kickbacks and also conducted unnecessary testing, according to the US Department of Justice.

Singulex will pay USD 1.5 million and HDL will be paying USD 47 million for settling all the allegations raised against them. As part of the agreements, none of the two firms admitted liability.

According to the court documents, both American firms were accused of engaged in the violation of the False Claims Act by wrongfully billing several federal healthcare programs, such as Medicare, for medically unnecessary tests, and paying the physicians in exchange for patient referrals.

Both Singulex and HDL were not available for immediate comment.

The alleged activity occurred at Singulex between January 2010 and October 2014, while claims against HDL covered the period from November 2008 to January 2015.

According to the prosecutors, the physicians were paid between USD 10 and USD 17 for each patient they referred to the firms for blood tests.

Under the settlement, both companies also agreed to strike separate agreements with the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General in order to improve the review procedures for preventing any such conduct occurring again in the future.