The U.S. Department of Justice has charged 78 people for their alleged participation in health care fraud and opioid abuse schemes valued at $2.5 billion.
The DOJ said in a Wednesday news release the defendants allegedly defrauded programs used to take care of elderly and disabled people. They used some of the money to buy luxury items, including exotic automobiles, jewelry and yachts.
“These enforcement actions, including against one of the largest health care fraud schemes ever prosecuted by the Justice Department, represent our intensified efforts to combat fraud and prosecute the individuals who profit from it,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in the news release.
The DOJ worked with federal and state law enforcement to seize or restrain millions of dollars in cash, automobiles and real estate.
“The Justice Department will find and bring to justice criminals who seek to defraud Americans and steal from taxpayer-funded programs,” Garland said.
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Telemarketing operation targeted elderly, disabled people
Eleven defendants, who are accused of submitting $2 billion in fraudulent claims through telemedicine schemes, are among those charged.
“An indictment in the Southern District of Florida alleges that the chief executive officer (CEO), former CEO and Vice President of Business Development of purported software and services companies conspired to generate and sell templated doctors’ orders for orthotic braces and pain creams in exchange for kickbacks and bribes,” the DOJ said.
The DOJ said a telemarketing operation, located in the U.S. and abroad, targeted elderly and disabled people with mail, television advertisements and other forms of advertising to get them to buy unnecessary medical equipment and prescriptions.
According to the indictment, the software platform was a “conduit for these telemarketers to coordinate the payment of illegal kickbacks and bribes to telemedicine companies to obtain doctors’ orders for Medicare beneficiaries,” the DOJ said.
In another case, a physician charged in the Eastern District of Washington was accused of signing for over 2,800 fraudulent orders for orthotic braces, including for some patients who already had limbs amputated, the release states.
The DOJ also charged 10 defendants in connection with more than $370 million in fraudulent prescription drug claims, and 24 physicians and licensed medical professionals who “lined their own pockets,” the DOJ said.
