601 Snagged In $2 Billion Healthcare Fraud Crackdown

WASHINGTON, DC — The U.S. Department of Justice announced its largest ever healthcare fraud enforcement crackdown involving 601 arrests and $2 billion in false billings. Of the arrests, 124 stemmed from South Florida cases, according to U.S. Attorney Benjamin Greenberg in Miami. Federal officials said the action netted 76 doctors involved in prescribing and distributing opioids and other dangerous narcotics.

"It's the largest takedown in Department of Justice history," Greenberg told Patch on Thursday after announcing the South Florida arrests.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions had earlier announced the massive federal action, which involved 58 federal districts and included a total of 165 doctors, nurses and other licensed medical professionals, including the 76 involved in prescribing narcotics.

The enforcement action was primarily aimed at billing schemes related to Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE (a health insurance program for members and veterans of the armed forces and their families), and private insurance companies stemming from medically unnecessary prescription drugs and compounded medications that often were never purchased or distributed to beneficiaries.

Greenberg told Patch that he hopes the action will help curb the mushrooming opioid crisis in the United States and his jurisdiction in particular, which is home to a disproportionate number of the cases.

"You hope. You hope," he said. "I hope it puts at least some dent in it. This is in large part a financial case in terms of fraudulent billing and things like that. But there is a huge component of it that is helping to address the opioid epedemic, both here and nationally."

In South Florida, Greenberg said some of the charges relate to abuses involving s0-called sober homes, which serve as transitional housing for people recovering from addiction and are meant to provide a supervised and sober environment.

"There's a lot of different ways you can go at it," he said of the opioid crisis. "I hope it makes a dent."

Click here to read more about specific actions throughout the United States.

U.S. Attorney Benjamin Greenberg (podium) and other federal officials in Miami discuss what was described as the largest ever healthcare fraud enforcement crackdown in the United States. Photo by Paul Scicchitano.