WASHINGTON — Theranos founder and former CEO Elizabeth Holmes has been banned from federal health programs for 90 years, the Department of Health announced Friday.
Holmes will be sentenced to prison in November 2022 after being accused of knowing about a blood testing startup founded in 2003 that claimed to be able to test for various diseases and risks with a single finger prick. Sentenced to 11 years. Inaccurate and flawed results. Ahead of the government investigation, Theranos raised hundreds of millions of dollars, appointed prominent former U.S. officials to its board of directors, and sought a partnership with the U.S. military to use battlefield experiments.
The Department of Health and Human Services can exclude people convicted of felonies from Medicare, Medicaid, and Department of Defense health programs. The minimum bar period for such cases is five years, but HHS said that given “certain aggravating factors,” such as the length of Theranos' fraud and Holmes' incarceration, “a longer bar period is warranted.” “
HHS has already barred former Theranos president Ramesh Balwani from federal programs for 90 years. Mr. Balwani was also convicted of wire fraud related to the Theranos claims. Holmes completed his sentence in May last year.
“Accurate and reliable diagnostic testing technology is essential to our nation's public health infrastructure,” said Inspector General Christy Grimm. “False statements about the reliability of these medical products can put patients' health at risk and lead to mistrust in the health care system.”
Before the company's bankruptcy, Theranos had plans to roll out testing services at Walgreens pharmacies and install machines at Safeway grocery stores. Former CEOs of both companies testified at Holmes' trial, saying they had done their due diligence and were convinced by Holmes' claims. Last year, Walgreens settled for $44 million for patients who received incomplete results.
After a Wall Street Journal investigation into test reliability in 2015, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services inspected Theranos' labs and found numerous violations. In July 2016, the agency banned Holmes from owning or operating a laboratory for at least two years.
