Alleged Medicare fraud schemes involving $295 million in false billing lead to the arrest of 91 people in various U.S. cities, officials said.
The nearly eight dozen people arrested included doctors, nurses and other medical personnel, Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. said Wednesday in describing what he said was the largest takedown for Medicare fraud in U.S. history.
"The defendants charged in this takedown are accused of stealing precious taxpayer resources and defrauding Medicare - jeopardizing the integrity of our healthcare system and our nation's most critical healthcare program for personal gain," Holder said.
The Joint Medicare Fraud Strike Force, a multiagency team of federal, state and local investigators, spent the past week working with FBI, local law enforcement officials and other agencies in the takedown, the Justice Department said in a release. Besides the arrests, agents also executed 18 search warrants in ongoing strike force investigations, UPI.com reported.
Court documents indicate the defendants allegedly participated in schemes to submit claims to Medicare for treatments that were medically unnecessary and frequently never provided. The indictments and complaints also allege that patient recruiters, Medicare beneficiaries and other co-conspirators were paid kickbacks in return for supplying beneficiary information to providers so the providers could fraudulently bill Medicare.
