Washington Doctor Settles After Unnecessary Testing Charges

SEATTLE (AP) – A Seattle doctor has agreed to pay nearly $2.9 million to settle state and federal allegations that his clinics ordered unnecessary medical tests to boost his bottom line.

Authorities shuttered Dr. Frank Li’s seven Seattle Pain Clinics and suspended his license in 2016 after saying his failure to monitor prescriptions of powerful opioids could have contributed to more than a dozen deaths.

The settlement announced Thursday by the Seattle U.S. Attorney’s Office and the state Attorney General’s Office concerned allegations that Li’s companies billed government entities for thousands of medically unnecessary urine drug tests.