OAN’s Abril Elfi
10:30 AM – Saturday, June 29, 2024
The Justice Department has charged 193 people for $2.8 billion of healthcare fraud.
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On Thursday, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the start of a two-week operation in which 193 individuals nationwide, 76 of whom are licensed healthcare providers, were accused of taking part in healthcare fraud schemes.
According to Garland, the 145 cases that the Department of Justice (DOJ) highlighted involved intended losses of over $2.75 billion and actual losses of $1.6 billion. Allegations such as medically unnecessary amniotic wound grafts, diverted HIV medications, online Adderall distribution, and other telemedicine schemes were brought to light by the DOJ.
“As healthcare fraud schemes continue to evolve, so will the Justice Department’s investigative and prosecutorial strategies,” Garland said. “Our message to those seeking to exploit patients and defraud government programs is clear: You cannot hide your crimes. We will find you, and we will hold you accountable.”
The Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI, and the Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) of the Department of Health and Human Services were among the numerous state and federal law enforcement organizations with which the Criminal Division’s Health Care Fraud Unit, Federal collaborated.
In addition to the convictions in 32 federal districts and 11 states, the government claimed that it was able to seize more than $231 million in “cash, luxury vehicles, gold, and other assets.”
Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services also mentioned in a statement that her organization “took 127 administrative actions in the last six months separately against providers for their alleged involvement in healthcare fraud schemes.”
Law enforcement’s top priority was a fraud scheme worth over $900 million, in which four defendants allegedly preyed on elderly Medicare patients for expensive amniotic grafts. The Department of Justice stated in a statement that these treatments were given to the patients’ superficial wounds “indiscriminately, without coordination with the patient’s treating physicians, and without proper treatment for infection.”
According to the DOJ, two of those defendants received more than $600 million from Medicare in a mere 16 months.
Three owners and executives of a wholesale drug distributor were involved in another action that the government described. These defendants were accused by law enforcement of engaging in a $90 million wire fraud conspiracy involving “adulterated and misbranded HIV drugs,” which they purportedly bought back from patients and resold to pharmacies around the nation.
“At times, patients received bottles labeled as their prescription medication, but the bottles contained a different drug entirely, with one patient passing out and remaining unconscious for 24 hours after taking an antipsychotic drug, thinking it was his prescribed HIV medication,” the DOJ wrote.
The government also emphasized the charges that were previously made public against the clinical president and CEO of the telehealth startup Done, which it claimed coordinated the prescription of 40 million Adderall and other stimulant medications.
The recent announcement alluded to fresh accusations against their accomplices, one of whom is a Florida nurse practitioner who, according to the DOJ, prescribed over 1.5 million medications without consulting patients.
Done declared in a statement that it “disagrees” with the accusations made against its leadership and that it intends to carry on with business as usual.
“Healthcare fraud victimizes patients, endangers the health of vulnerable people, and plunders healthcare programs,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement. “This wide-ranging collaboration demonstrates the FBI’s commitment to rooting out predatory healthcare fraud, protecting patients, and ensuring critical healthcare funds go where they are needed most.”
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