US charges 193 people in $2.7bn healthcare fraud crackdown
Al Jazeera
Nearly 200 people have been charged in a sweeping nationwide crackdown on healthcare fraud schemes with false claims topping $2.7bn, the United States Department of Justice has said.
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced on Thursday charges against doctors, nurse practitioners and others across the US accused of a variety of scams, including a $900m scheme in Arizona targeting dying patients.
“It does not matter if you are a trafficker in a drug cartel or a corporate executive or medical professional employed by a healthcare company. If you profit from the unlawful distribution of controlled substances, you will be held accountable,” Garland said in a statement.
In the Arizona case, prosecutors have accused two owners of wound care companies of accepting more than $330m in kickbacks as part of a scheme to fraudulently bill Medicare for amniotic wound grafts, which are dressings to help heal wounds.
Nurse practitioners were pressured to apply the wound grafts to elderly patients who did not need them, including people in hospice care, the Justice Department said. Some patients died the day they received the grafts or within days, court papers say.
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