healthy body tips

WASHINGTON -- The largest healthcare fraud operation in U.S. history has nabbed suspects accused of collectively defrauding Medicare of more than $225 million, according to officials from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The Medicare Fraud Strike Force charged 111 defendants in nine cities for their alleged participation in Medicare fraud schemes, officials announced on Thursday. Defendants included doctors, nurses, and healthcare company owners and executives, among others.

"With this takedown, we have identified and shut down large-scale fraud schemes operating throughout the country. We have safeguarded precious taxpayer dollars. And we have helped to protect our nation's most essential healthcare programs, Medicare and Medicaid," said Attorney General Eric Holder in a statement. "As [these] arrests prove, we are waging an aggressive fight against healthcare fraud."

More than 700 law enforcement agents from the FBI, the HHS Office of Inspector General, multiple Medicaid Fraud Control Units, and other state and local law enforcement agencies participated in the operation.

The defendants are accused of various healthcare fraud-related crimes, including conspiracy to defraud the Medicare program, criminal false claims, violations of the anti-kickback statutes, money laundering, and aggravated identity theft.

The charges involve a variety of alleged fraud schemes targeting various medical treatments and services such as home health care, physical and occupational therapy, nerve conduction tests, and durable medical equipment.

Those who were charged allegedly participated in schemes to submit claims to Medicare for treatments that were medically unnecessary and often never provided.

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

"Over the last two years our joint efforts have more than quadrupled the number of anti-fraud strike force teams operating in fraud hot spots around the country from two to nine -- with the latest additions Chicago and Dallas -- bringing hundreds of charges against criminals who had billed Medicare for hundreds of millions of dollars," HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement.

"Last year alone, our partnership recovered a record $4 billion on behalf of taxpayers. From 2008-2010, every dollar the federal government spent under its Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control programs averaged a return on investment of $6.80," Sebelius said.