Terri Haines Admits to Genetic Testing Kickback Scheme

Terri Haines, 57, of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, is going down for her role in a rigged genetic testing scam that ripped off Medicare for over $340,000. Today, she pleaded guilty by videoconference before U.S. District Judge Anne E. Thompson to conspiring to violate the federal anti-kickback statute — a felony that carries up to five years behind bars.

Haines wasn’t a doctor, nurse, or licensed health care provider. She was a sales rep — one who made money by hustling DNA samples from elderly patients at health fairs across the region. Her hustle? Collect saliva swabs, send them to a New Jersey lab for CGx cancer screening, and pocket commissions. But there was one problem: she had no authority to order those expensive tests without a physician’s approval.

So she bought one. Haines paid illegal kickbacks and bribes to Dr. Lee Besen, of Scranton, Pennsylvania, to slap his name and medical credentials on test orders — even though Besen never showed up to a single health fair and never laid eyes on a single patient. The scheme was a paper trail of fraud: fake medical justifications, ghost-signed orders, and Medicare footed the bill.

The damage? More than $340,000 in fraudulent reimbursements funneled to labs based on tests that had no legitimate medical oversight. Haines and Besen played their parts like clockwork — she sourced the samples, he laundered them through his license. It wasn’t medicine. It was a criminal enterprise disguised as health care.

Besen has already pleaded guilty in this case and a related scheme where he took monthly cash bribes to push genetic tests to labs in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Haines is now the fifth defendant to admit guilt in a sprawling kickback network targeting Medicare through fraudulent CGx testing in the Scranton area.

The charge — conspiracy to violate the anti-kickback statute — carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, or twice the gross gain or loss from the crime, whichever is greater. Sentencing is set for March 22, 2022. The investigation was led by the FBI, IRS-Criminal Investigation, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, with support from state and regional partners. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua L. Haber and Acting Principal Assistant U.S. Attorney Rahul Agarwal.