The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday announced criminal charges against 18 defendants in nine U.S. federal districts for their alleged participation in healthcare fraud schemes that involved laboratory testing and over-the-counter test suppliers.
The alleged schemes resulted in more than $490 million in COVID-19 related false billings to federal programs and theft from federally-funded pandemic programs.
The DOJ said that in connection with the enforcement action, it seized more than $16 million in cash and other fraud proceeds.
Additionally, the Center for Program Integrity of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CPI/CMS) announced that it took adverse administrative actions in the last year against 28 medical providers for their alleged involvement in COVID-19 schemes.
“Today’s announcement marks the largest-ever coordinated law enforcement action in the United States targeting healthcare fraud schemes that exploit the COVID-19 pandemic,” Kenneth Polite, Jr., an assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said in a statement.
Multiple defendants were charged with defrauding the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) COVID-19 Uninsured Program designed to prevent the further spread of the pandemic by providing access to uninsured patients for testing and treatment. A California lab owner was charged for allegedly submitting more than $358 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare, HRSA, and a private...
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