The Department of Justice announced today criminal charges against 138 defendants, including 42 doctors, nurses, and other licensed medical professionals, in 31 federal districts across the United States for their alleged participation in various healthcare fraud schemes that resulted in approximately $1.4 billion in alleged losses. The charges target approximately $1.1 billion in fraud committed using telemedicine (the use of telecommunications technology to provide healthcare services remotely), $29 million in COVID-19 healthcare fraud, $133 million connected to substance abuse treatment facilities, or “sober homes,” and $160 million connected to other healthcare fraud and illegal opioid distribution schemes across the country.
Today’s enforcement actions were led and coordinated by the Healthcare Fraud Unit of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, in conjunction with its Healthcare Fraud and Appalachian Regional Prescription Opioid (ARPO) Strike Force program and its core partners, the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), FBI, and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), as part of the department’s ongoing efforts to combat the devastating effects of healthcare fraud and the opioid epidemic. The cases are being prosecuted by Healthcare Fraud and ARPO Strike Force teams from the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, in coordination with 31 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices nationwide, and agents from HHS-OIG, FBI, DEA, and other federal and state law enforcement agencies.
