Health Care Fraud Takedown Targets 601 Defendants, Including Docs

Federal officials say 601 people, including 165 medical professionals are facing charges in connection to a massive health care fraud takedown, much of which officials said is related to the country's ongoing opioid crisis. According to the Department of Justice, the defendants are alleged to have participated in schemes that involve more than $2 billion in false billings.

"The Department of Justice, in conjunction with the Department of Health and Human Services, is announcing the largest health care fraud takedown operation in American history," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said at a press conference on Thursday. "This year we are charging 601 people, including 76 doctors, 23 pharmacists, 19 nurses, and other medical personnel with more than $2 billion in medical fraud."

The DOJ said 162 defendants were charged for their roles in prescribing and distributing opioids as well as other dangerous narcotics. Officials said in a press release that the charges "aggressively target" schemes billing Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE (a program for members and armed forces veterans and their families) and private insurance companies for prescription drugs that were not needed and compounded medications that often were never even purchased or distributed. Feds said the charges also target individuals, particularly medical professionals, contributing to the opioid crisis.

"In many cases, patient recruiters, beneficiaries and other co-conspirators were allegedly paid cash kickbacks in return for supplying beneficiary information to providers, so that the providers could then submit fraudulent bills to Medicare," the DOJ said.

Sessions gave the example of one doctor who allegedly defrauded Medicare of more than $112 million by distributing 2.2 million unnecessary doses of drugs like oxycodone and fentanyl. He said that in another case, 13 defendants allegedly defrauded taxpayers of more than $126 million. Sessions added that much of that money was intended to pay for health care for troops.

In addition to the charges, HHS officials announced that they have excluded 2,700 individuals from federal health care programs.

"We are sending a clear message to criminals across the country: we will find you," Sessions said. "We will bring you to justice. And you will pay a very high price for what you have done."

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