Authorities arrest 243 people in $712 million Medicare fraud

The US Department of Justice announced that 243 people have been arrested across the country, charged with submitting fake billing for Medicare - a government healthcare programme - that totalled $712 million.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch described the arrests as the largest criminal healthcare fraud takedown in the history of the Justice Department. Those arrested included 46 doctors, nurses and other licensed medical professionals.

The charges are based on a variety of alleged fraud schemes, the government said, including submitting claims to Medicare and Medicaid, the healthcare programme for low-income individuals, for treatments that were medically unnecessary and often never provided. The nationwide sweep, led by the Medicare Fraud Strike Force and the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, involved about 900 law enforcement officials.

It is the largest both in terms of the number of those charged and the amount of money lost. Many of the arrests were in Florida, long an epicentre of Medicare fraud. In Miami, 73 defendants were charged with offenses involving approximately $263 million in false billings. Since 2007, as part of increased efforts to tackle Medicare fraud, federal authorities have charged nearly 2 100 people with falsely billing the Medicare programme more than $6.5 billion, according to the Justice Department.

Reuters, 18 June 2015