Jun 18, 2015:
The U.S. Department of Justice issued a press release entitled "National Medicare Fraud Takedown Results in Charges Against 243 Individuals for Approximately $712 Million in False Billing".
The press release states:
Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell announced today a nationwide sweep led by the Medicare Fraud Strike Force in 17 districts, resulting in charges against 243 individuals, including 46 doctors, nurses and other licensed medical professionals, for their alleged participation in Medicare fraud schemes involving approximately $712 million in false billings. In addition, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) also suspended a number of providers using its suspension authority as provided in the Affordable Care Act. This coordinated takedown is the largest in Strike Force history, both in terms of the number of defendants charged and loss amount.
The defendants are charged with various health care fraud-related crimes, including conspiracy to commit health care fraud, violations of the anti-kickback statutes, money laundering and aggravated identity theft. The charges are based on a variety of alleged fraud schemes involving various medical treatments and services, including home health care, psychotherapy, physical and occupational therapy, durable medical equipment (DME) and pharmacy fraud. More than 44 of the defendants arrested are charged with fraud related to the Medicare prescription drug benefit program known as Part D, which is the fastest-growing component of the Medicare program overall.
According to court documents, the defendants participated in alleged schemes to submit claims to Medicare and Medicaid for treatments that were medically unnecessary and often never provided. In many cases, patient recruiters, Medicare beneficiaries and other co-conspirators allegedly were paid cash kickbacks in return for supplying beneficiary information to providers, so that the providers could then submit fraudulent bills to Medicare for services that were medically unnecessary or never performed. Collectively, the doctors, nurses, licensed medical professionals, health care company owners and others charged are accused of conspiring to submit a total of approximately $712 million in fraudulent billing.
The Medicare Fraud Strike Force operations are part of the Health Care Fraud Prevention & Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), a joint initiative announced in May 2009 between the Department of Justice and HHS to focus their efforts to prevent and deter fraud and enforce current anti-fraud laws around the country. Since their inception in March 2007, Strike Force operations in nine locations have charged over 2,300 defendants who collectively have falsely billed the Medicare program for over $7 billion.
Feds charge hundreds in Miami, U.S. with Medicare prescription and other scams | Miami Herald
More:
- Why It’s So Hard to Fix Medicare Fraud | The Wall Street Journal
- Fighting Medicare Fraud on the Front Lines | AARP
- Pervasive Medicare Fraud Proves Hard to Stop | The New York Times
- Medicare Fraud Strike Force charges 90 individuals for approximately $260 million in false billing | United States Department of Health & Human Services
- Medicare Fraud Strike Force Set Record Numbers for Health Care Fraud Prosecutions | United States Department of Justice
- Hospital Chain Said to Scheme to Inflate Bills | The New York Times
- Government Programs Have Become One Big Scammer Fraud Fest | Forbes
- Medicare Reports Fraud And Waste Grew In 2013 After Years Of Decline | Forbes
- Obama Administration Also Promoting Fraud Through Obamacare | Forbes
- Medicare Fraud and For-Profit Hospitals- A Story That Never Ends | Health Beat
- Hospitals: The cost of admission | CBS News
- Medicare Fraud: A $60 Billion Crime | CBS News
- Stop Medicare Fraud | stopmedicarefraud.gov