Impeding changes to our Health Care system

[classicman]

91 charged in Medicare fraud crackdown

A nationwide law enforcement crackdown has charged 91 people — including doctors and other medical professionals — with participating in Medicare fraud schemes involving $295 million in false billing.

Attorney General Eric Holder and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Wednesday that 70 people were charged in indictments unsealed Tuesday and Wednesday and 21 others were charged earlier, beginning Aug. 24. Charges were filed in Baton Rouge, La.; Brooklyn, N.Y.; Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston; Los Angeles and Miami.

At a news conference, the attorney general said that those arrested are "jeopardizing the integrity of our health care system." Sebelius called the law enforcement initiative "a powerful warning to those who would try to defraud taxpayers and Medicare beneficiaries.

Eleven of the people charged were doctors, three were nurses and 10 were licensed health professionals.

Over half the defendants — 46 — and $160 million of the total in phony claims announced Wednesday came from South Florida, still leading the nation in Medicare fraud.

In Miami, U.S. Attorney Wifredo Ferrer said investigators noticed a new twist in which people who already were receiving Medicare disability checks were recruited with promises they could live in a halfway house in South Florida — as long as they agreed to receive mental health services they did not need. Many were addicted to drugs or alcohol, and some were homeless, and Ferrer said they would be threatened with eviction if they did not participate in the fraud scheme.

"They were already in the system. They were lured in by the promise of having housing. It was, 'Come and have a fresh start in Miami,'" Ferrer said.

Every one of them should immediately lose their licenses and have to pay back every penny PLUS.