Houston woman added to FBI fraud list in $90 million Medicare case

A Houston lab owner accused in a roughly $90 million Medicare fraud case has been added to the FBI’s new Most Wanted Fraudsters list, putting Emylee Thai in a national search tied to unnecessary genetic testing and kickback payments. Federal officials say the fraudulent billing in the case reached nearly $100 million.

Thai was charged in 2022 with conspiracy to commit health care fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States and paying or receiving kickbacks connected to a federal health care program. The FBI said the scheme grew out of lab business tied to doctors’ orders and DNA samples, a setup prosecutors say turned medical testing into a billing pipeline for Medicare.

The wanted notice also says Thai violated pretrial conditions by tampering with a GPS device. Authorities believe she cut off her ankle monitor and fled to Vietnam using a fake passport. The FBI is offering a reward of up to $150,000 for information that leads to her arrest and conviction.

For Harris County, the case is a reminder that health care fraud is not an abstract federal tally. When unnecessary genetic tests are billed to Medicare, the losses can hit taxpayers, public health programs and the insurers that help pay medical claims for residents across the Houston area. The damage is not limited to one lab balance sheet; it reaches into the costs of routine care and the scrutiny attached to legitimate billing.

The federal wanted notice does not name a Houston clinic, doctor or patient in the allegations, but it does show how a local lab operator can become the face of a nationwide fraud hunt. Thai’s name is now attached to a case that federal officials say involved a Houston-linked business, kickback payments and tens of millions of dollars in disputed Medicare bills.