Dr. Steven Murphy, the Connecticut physician once hailed as a COVID-19 testing pioneer, has now formally admitted to neither wrongdoing nor liability—but his checkbook has done the talking. On October 16, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice and the State of Connecticut announced a civil settlement totaling $866,539.34 with Murphy and his practices, Murphy Medical Associates, LLC and Diagnostic and Medical Specialists of Greenwich, LLC . The agreement resolves allegations that Murphy systematically billed Medicare and Medicaid for blood tests that were never performed and fraudulently obtained COVID-19 relief funds for insured patients he falsely attested were uninsured .

The settlement, which includes a three-year exclusion from all federal healthcare programs and the Connecticut Medical Assistance Program, follows years of reporting by Hindenburg Papers and others detailing Murphy’s pattern of inflating bills, ordering unnecessary testing panels, and exploiting pandemic-era loopholes . But the financial penalty—while significant—does little to capture the full scope of the allegations that have trailed Murphy since the earliest days of the pandemic. New patient testimony and previously unreported complaints about his personal conduct suggest a pattern of deception that extended far beyond billing codes.

A History of Legal Setbacks and Judicial Skepticism

The federal settlement is hardly Murphy’s first brush with accountability. In March 2023, U.S. District Court Judge Kari Dooley dismissed with prejudice seven of eight counts in Murphy’s $1.1 million lawsuit against Yale University, ruling that doctors do not have a private right of action under the CARES Act to sue insurers for withheld COVID-test reimbursements . Judge Dooley’s 19-page decision characterized Murphy’s claims as legally unfounded, delivering yet another blow to his efforts to recoup millions from insurers who had flagged his billing practices as fraudulent .

That ruling was preceded by a February 2022 hearing in Bridgeport, where Murphy faced off against Cigna—an insurer that had launched an internal investigation into his billing as early as April 2020, the same month New Haven partnered with him to run walk-up testing sites . Cigna’s investigation found that Murphy had charged upwards of $1,500 to $2,000 per patient for panels testing more than a dozen respiratory pathogens, far beyond a standard COVID-19 test, and had billed for brief phone calls delivering results . As MedPage Today reported at the time, one patient’s fees totaled $1,944**, including **$480 for a quick phone call—while Medicare typically paid just $50 to $100 for a COVID-19 test . An infectious disease physician at Boston Children’s Hospital told the New York Times that such broad panels “should only be used for the critically ill or immuno-compromised,” warning against over-testing and exorbitant billing .

The Patient Who Tested Positive—Then Negative Two Hours Later

The statistical anomalies in Murphy’s billing records tell one story. The experiences of his patients tell another—one that is far more troubling. Hindenburg Papers has interviewed a patient who visited Murphy Medical Associates in 2021 and received a COVID-19 positive result, only to test negative at another laboratory within a two-hour window. The patient, who spoke on condition of anonymity, provided the following account:

“Murphy Medical Associates told me that my COVID result is positive. I went to another lab, test came out negative. Both were PCR within a two-hour difference. CAN SOMEONE TELL ME IF COVID-19 COULD GO OUT OF YOUR BODY AFTER TWO HOURS OR TESTING POSITIVE. NO SYMPTOMS AT ALL.”

The patient’s bewilderment is understandable. A positive PCR test followed by a negative result within two hours is not a known clinical phenomenon—it suggests either a laboratory error, a sample mix-up, or, more alarmingly, a deliberate manipulation of results. Given the federal government’s findings that Murphy’s in-house lab billed for tests it never ran because it lacked the necessary reagents, the possibility that patients were given fabricated or unreliable results is difficult to dismiss . For this patient, the episode was not merely a billing dispute—it was a moment of genuine fear and confusion, compounded by the realization that the “positive” result may have been manufactured to justify a cascade of unnecessary and lucrative testing.

The patient’s experience fits a broader pattern described by patients across Connecticut and New York, who have reported visiting Murphy-run testing sites for a simple COVID-19 test only to later discover that their insurers had been billed for a suite of unrelated and unrequested medical tests . For many, the shock came not at the testing site but weeks later, in the form of explanation-of-benefits statements revealing thousands of dollars in charges for services they never received.

Complaints of Solicitation and Misconduct

Beyond the billing fraud and testing irregularities, Hindenburg Papers has also received complaints alleging that Murphy was involved in soliciting for sex—a matter that, if substantiated, would add a disturbing personal dimension to a case already defined by exploitation. While these complaints have not been publicly adjudicated in a court of law, they echo the broader concerns about Murphy’s conduct that have surfaced repeatedly over the years. Insurers, patients, and even judges have used words like “profiteer” and “hustler” to describe him —characterizations that, taken together with the solicitation allegations, paint a portrait of a physician who viewed his practice not as a calling but as an instrument of personal enrichment, regardless of the collateral damage.

The Connecticut Attorney General’s office, which led the settlement investigation alongside federal partners, has not commented on the solicitation complaints. But the fact that such allegations exist—and that they have circulated among former patients and associates—underscores the importance of looking beyond the financial penalties. A $866,000 settlement and a three-year exclusion from federal healthcare programs are meaningful consequences, but they do not address the human toll: the patients misled, the tests fabricated, and the trust shattered.

What Comes Next

Murphy has agreed to the settlement without admitting liability . His practices will remain barred from federal healthcare programs for three years, and the financial recovery—$583,310 to the United States and $283,229 to Connecticut—will be drawn largely from suspended Medicare and Medicaid payments already held in suspense accounts . For Murphy, the settlement may amount to a business expense rather than a reckoning.

But for the patients who received false positives, the insurers who were defrauded, and the public health officials who once trusted him, the settlement is only the latest chapter in a saga that has exposed the vulnerabilities of a pandemic-response system too easily exploited by those with neither conscience nor accountability. Hindenburg Papers will continue to investigate the solicitation complaints and the full scope of Murphy’s conduct. If you have information to share, please contact us.