DOJ Announces Crackdown Largest Criminal Health Care Fraud Takedown in It’s History
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iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Department of Justice is cracking down on Medicare fraud.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch, FBI Director Jim Comey and others from DOJ and Health and Human Services announced Thursday that the Medicare Fraud Strike Force — a joint initiative of investigators and law enforcement officials at the federal, state and local level — has charged or unveiled charges against 243 people for allegedly participating in Medicare fraud involving $712 million. It’s the largest criminal health care fraud takedown in the Justice Department’s history, Lynch said at a news conference Thursday.
Lynch said the cases involve doctors, pharmacy owners, home health care providers and others who billed for equipment that was not provided, unnecessary health care procedures and services not rendered. Nearly 50 of the defendants were charged in connection with fraud in the Medicare prescription drug benefit program.
A Michigan defendant, Lynch said, is “alleged to have prescribed unnecessary narcotic pain medications to patients in exchange for use of their identification information to generate false billings.
“Patients who attempted to withdraw from the scheme were threatened with loss of access to prescription narcotics,” she said.
Lynch added the defendant’s actions “deepened these patients’ addiction,” binding them to the scheme.
In one of the more “egregious” allegations, said Lynch, involved the owners of a Miami mental health facility billing for intense psychotherapy sessions that resulted in tens of millions in reimbursements for the doctors based on treatment that amounted to no more than moving patients to different locations.
“Several of these patients suffered from illnesses like Alzheimers and dementia, and were unable even to communicate wit their supposed caregivers,” she said.
In the eight-year history of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, 2,300 individuals have been charged in fraud cases accounting for $7 billion. Another $15.3 billion has been recovered through the False Claims Act cases since 2009.
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