The Department of Justice announced that more than 400 people have been charged in connection with healthcare fraud. Those charged include 90 doctors and other medical professionals for fraud, opioid abuse schemes, and patient harm. The legal action involves “6.5 billion in false claims and significant patient harm, including death,” the DOJ said.
Actions taken include the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) suspending 1,079 providers and revoking billing privileges for 1,403 providers. Civil charges were made against 13 defendants for $14.8 million in fraud schemes, as well as civil settlements with 31 defendants totaling $23 million.
Charges were filed against 11 defendants, including a company executive and eight medical professionals, for fraudulent wound care schemes; nearly three hundred defendants were charged for Medicaid fraud; and 29 defendants were charged for their roles in transnational criminal organizations.
“This year’s National Health Care Fraud Takedown represents the greatest whole-of-government effort to combat health care fraud in our Nation’s history,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. “Under the decisive leadership of President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, and our law enforcement partners, this administration has ushered in a new era of enforcement that will safeguard taxpayer dollars.”
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr noted that healthcare fraud “steals from taxpayers, exploits vulnerable patients, and puts lives at risk.”
“Today’s historic enforcement action sends a clear message: if you use our health care system to enrich yourself at the expense of patients or the American people, we will find you, we will prosecute you, and we will hold you accountable,” he said. “HHS will continue working with our law enforcement partners to protect patients, safeguard taxpayer dollars, and restore integrity to our health care system.”
Last year, the DOJ charged 324 individuals for their “alleged participation in various health care fraud schemes involving over $14.6 billion in intended loss.”
