The former Theranos CEO is barred from receiving payments from federal health program.

Elizabeth Holmes—the disgraced and incarcerated founder of the infamous blood-testing startup Theranos—is barred from participating in federal health programs for nine decades, according to an announcement from the health department Friday.

The exclusion means that Holmes is barred from receiving payments from federal health programs for services or products, which significantly restricts her ability to work in the health care sector. It also prevents her from participating in Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal health care programs. With a 90-year term, the exclusion is lifelong for Holmes, who is currently 39.

The exclusion was announced by Inspector General Christi Grimm of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General.

Holmes is serving an 11-year, three-month sentence for defrauding investors of her blood-testing startup, Theranos, which she founded in 2003. At the time, Holmes claimed to have developed proprietary technology that could perform hundreds of medical tests using just a small drop of blood from a finger prick. The remarkable claim helped her drive the company’s valuation to a stunning $9 billion in 2014, and set up lucrative partnerships. But, in reality, the technology never worked. The company collapsed in 2018, and she was convicted of fraud in 2022.

    • Aidinthel@reddthat.com
      811·
      10 months ago

      You are mistaken. Real doctors and patients made serious medical decisions based on the results from her tests.

      One of the most troubling patient stories that Scavdis would learn about was the case of a pregnant woman whose Theranos test indicated that she was miscarrying. Gratefully, she later learned, she was not. Another woman revealed to Scavdis the pain and fear she experienced when her Theranos blood test indicated that her life-threatening ectopic pregnancy had been dissolved when, in fact, it had not.

      https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/regulatory-news-stories-and-features/patient-advocacy-lies-heart-fda-agents-theranos-case

      • nonailsleft@lemm.ee
        43·
        10 months ago

        But isn’t it part of the story that they had the actual tests done by other, established laboratories, because their own equipment never worked?

        I guess every laboratory has a number of incorrect diagnoses. And real doctors and patients act on those as well.

        It’s not like Ms. Holmes was filling in fake reports on her phone to scam patients, is what we’re saying

        • Aidinthel@reddthat.com
          13·
          10 months ago

          The promise Theranos made was that their tests could be run with a much smaller sample of blood than other labs. Therefore, the results were inherently unreliable even if they used real machines, because they didn’t have the sample amount the machines were designed for.