Fifteen people, including six medical professionals, face federal charges in Los Angeles for massive health care fraud schemes.
The Justice Department today announced charges against 15 defendants, including six medical professionals, for health care fraud schemes that collectively resulted in over $1.8 billion in fraudulent claims to government and private health care programs. This includes over $1.6 billion billed in a scheme to lure vulnerable individuals to California for sham substance abuse treatment, the largest case of its type ever prosecuted by the Department; $134 million fraudulently billed to Medicare for unnecessary atherectomy procedures that resulted in injury to patients; and over $138 million fraudulently billed to Medicare in three different hospice fraud schemes where the patients were not terminally ill. In addition, another defendant was indicted after previously being charged by complaint in a $270 million scheme to defraud Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program, by submitting pharmacy claims for bogus prescriptions.
Eight defendants were arrested today, six of whom are expected to make their initial appearances this afternoon at the U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles, and two of whom are expected to make their initial appearances at a U.S. District Court in Texas.