Feds stopped five state Medicare Fraud

The Justice Department struck a major blow for Medicare fraud prevention Friday. In coordinated raids, Federal agents introduced no-nonsense health care reform to doctors, nurses, health care company owners and medical billers in five states. This is the largest coordinated series of federal health care fraud in US history with 94 people being charged in the case. The defendants of the fraud case were accused of stealing $ 251 million from the Medicare system.

Medicare fraud consists of a wide variety of people

Because of the Medicare fraud, the feds arrested people in Baton Rouge, LA, Brooklyn, NY, Detroit, Houston, and Miami. Reporting on the Medicare fraud scheme, ABC News said the government said doctors, nurses and health care professionals accepted cash kickbacks from medical service providers to approve services which were unnecessary or never delivered. These services, HIV infusions, home health care, and physical and occupational therapy, would be charged to Medicare although they never happened.

Health care reform calls for that Medicare fraud stop
The health care reform agenda required a Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team to be put into place in 2009. Federal prosecution is used alongside electronic claims by this special team that was put together to discover the main way Medicare fraud is done, through illicit billing. Health care fraud prevention had the first “summit” in Miami with Eric H Holder Jr., Attorney General, and Kathleen Sebelius, Human Services Secretary. As part of the health care reform agenda, this Medicare fraud raid was essential to let companies know the Obama administration means it.

Medicare fraud shown very easily

There were numerous Medicare fraud operations that weren’t even hard to see. In Brooklyn, NY, $ 70 million was stolen in an operation with a “kickback room” that gave 1,000 kickbacks to Medicare beneficiaries according to the Washington Post. An undercover investigation showed that Medicare 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.”.

Medicare fraud often happens in Miami

350 agents in the Health and human Services’ inspector general’s office and FBI made the arrests. It was the biggest takedown of Medicare fraud offenders since the federal program was began in 1965. Miami bore the biggest harvest of crooks on the exact same day the health care fraud summit took place there. Federal indictments shows us that within the Miami-Dade county, there were 25 suspects arrested and charged for stealing $ 103 million in fraudulent health care claims.

Discover more details

ABC News
abcnews.go.com/WN/government-agents-uncover-medicare-fraud-operations-cities/story?id=11180320&page=2
Washington Post
washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/16/AR2010071603876.html?hpid=topnews
Miami Herald
miamiherald.com/2010/07/16/1733354/crackdown-nets-about-100-medicare.html