Medicare, Medicaid Cheats Arrested in Sweeping Healthcare Fraud Sting
Christopher Weber
Calling it the largest health care fraud sting in U.S. history, the Justice Department announced charges Friday against 94 people accused of cheating Medicare and Medicaid, The Washington Post reported.
Federal agents arrested suspects in five states, rounding up patients, doctors and executives at health care firms. They are accused of bilking the Medicare system out of more than $251 million through false claims for services that were medically unnecessary or never provided, according to the Post.
Thirty-six people had been arrested as of Friday afternoon and 58 were still being sought.
Some of the alleged schemes were blatant, the Post said:
In one alleged $70 million scheme operated out of a New York City clinic, more than 1,000 cash kickbacks were paid to Medicare beneficiaries out of a designated "kickback room," Lanny A. Breuer, assistant attorney general for Justice's criminal division, said at a news conference. An undercover investigation showed that beneficiaries lined up to receive illegal payments near a sign showing a woman with her finger to her lips warning in Russian, "Don't Gossip," Breuer said.
The charges include conspiracy to defraud the Medicare and Medicaid programs, criminal false claims, violations of anti-kickback statutes and money laundering. Many of the alleged schemes involve phony claims to Medicare and Medicaid for physical and occupational therapy, home health care, and other treatments.