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Two doctors who owned a chain of urgent care clinics in Tucson and Phoenix are out of business and their company must repay more than $12 million obtained by filing false medical insurance claims.

Patients at the clinics, which operated under the name Urgent Care Extra, may have been subjected to unnecessary tests and procedures as part of a scheme to boost the company’s income, said a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona.

UCXtra Umbrella LLC, the chain’s Gilbert-based parent firm, pleaded guilty to health-care fraud and engaging in monetary transactions derived from unlawful activity.

The company operated more than 30 clinics, most in Tucson and Phoenix. The sites collectively had more than 1 million patient visits from 2012 to 2016, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release.

A federal judge in Phoenix recently ordered the company to repay $12.5 million it bilked from health insurance firms.

“Greed-driven schemes like this one drive up health-care costs and hurt all Americans,” U.S. Attorney Michael Bailey said in the news release.

In its guilty plea, the firm admitted to “intentionally” making patients’ medical conditions seem worse than they were to inflate insurance claims.

The company also admitted “that it encouraged providers and staff to order tests and procedures that may not have been medically necessary to justify higher billing,” the news release said.

Public records show the company was owned by two emergency-room doctors, Jeffry S. Sawyer of Gilbert and Douglas D. Hobbs of Mesa, who no longer are licensed to practice in the state.

Both allowed their Arizona medical licenses to expire, Hobbs in 2018 and Sawyer in 2019, the Arizona Medical Board’s website says.

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Contact reporter Carol Ann Alaimo at 573-4138 or calaimo@tucson.com. On Twitter: @StarHigherEd