Press Releases
10/16/2026
Attorney General Tong Announces False Claims Act Settlement with Fairfield County Doctor and His Practices
(Hartford, CT)—Attorney General William Tong today announced today that Connecticut and the federal government have entered into a civil agreement with Dr. Steven Murphy, and his businesses, Murphy Medical Associates, LLC and Diagnostic and Medial Specialist of Greenwich, LLC, located in Stamford. Murphy and his businesses will pay $866,539 to settle allegations of submitting inflated bills to government health insurance for medical services and COVID-19 related fraud during the time-period from September 2019 through April 2022. The United States will receive $583,310 and Connecticut will receive $283,229.
As part of the settlement, Murphy and his practices agreed to be excluded from all federal health care programs and the Connecticut Medical Assistance Program (CMAP) for a period of three years.
“Medical overbilling erodes public trust, wastes vital public resources, and is against the law. My office stands ready with our federal and state partners to take action against anyone who abuses the system,” said Attorney General Tong.
Blood Testing Fraud
The Connecticut Office of the Attorney General launched an investigation into Murphy’s billing practices in May 2020.
The investigation found Murphy had an in-house lab that performed blood tests on patients. The lab performed blood tests on patients who had possible exposure to COVID-19 or were presenting with COVID-19 symptoms, and also performed blood tests on non-COVID patients, including those who were having an annual physical exam.
Murphy and his practices utilized blood testing panels in their in-house lab. The blood testing panels were not billed and paid at one price per panel. Each blood test that made up the panel was billed separately to Medicare or Medicaid.
Reagents were used to run the specific blood tests that made up the panel, but there were times when Murphy and his practices failed to purchase certain reagents or otherwise did not have certain reagents, so they could not run the complete blood testing panel. The government alleges that Murphy and his practices billed Medicare and Medicaid for specific blood tests that were part of their standard panel, but which were never actually performed, because they did not have the reagents necessary to perform the specific blood tests that were billed.
COVID-19 Uninsured Program Fraud
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress passed a series of bills to provide funds to health care providers for COVID-19 testing and treatment for uninsured individuals (the “Uninsured Program”). The Uninsured Program reimbursed eligible health care providers for COVID-19 testing, treatment, and vaccine administration provided to uninsured individuals. HRSA was selected to provide oversight and management of the Uninsured Program.
An uninsured individual was defined as someone who was “not enrolled” in a government or private health insurance program as of the date of service in question. Prior to seeking reimbursement from the Uninsured Program, health care providers were required to attest to the government that they had confirmed that the patients for whom they were seeking reimbursement were uninsured.
Murphy and his practices participated in the Uninsured Program, attested that the patients for whom they sought payment were uninsured, and received reimbursement from the Uninsured Program for those patients. The government alleges that Murphy and his practices had information, including copies of insurance cards and other documents, in their files indicating that certain patients for which they made attestations and submitted claims for reimbursement to the Uninsured Program were, in fact, enrolled in government or private health insurance programs. In addition, Murphy and his practices changed the patient’s insurance identifying information to “Covid19 HRSA Uninsured” in their internal electronic medical records system and then submitted claims and received reimbursement from the Uninsured Program for those patients.
Forensic Fraud Examiners Thomas Martin and Kevin Jeffko, and Deputy Associate Attorney General Gregory O’Connell, Chief of the Government Fraud Section, assisted the Attorney General Tong in this matter.
Anyone with knowledge of suspected fraud or abuse in the public healthcare system is asked to contact the Attorney General’s Government Fraud Section at 860-808-5040 or by email at ag.fraud@ct.gov; the Connecticut Medicaid Fraud Control Unit at 860-258-5986 or by email at conndcj@ct.gov; or the Connecticut Department of Social Services fraud reporting hotline at 1-800-842-2155, online at www.ct.gov/dss/reportingfraud, or by email to providerfraud.dss@ct.gov.
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