The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday announced charges against 15 people, including six medical professionals, for allegedly participating in schemes that collectively submitted $2 billion in fraudulent health care claims to private and public insurers.
The largest of the cases involved $1.6 billion in billings for what the DOJ described as “sham substance abuse treatment” that brought patients from around the country to Southern California with offers of free flights, apartments, cars, marijuana, illegal drugs and access to prescription medications.
Once they arrived, those with “premium” insurance policies received luxurious accommodations, but those deemed “non-premium” were put in cramped, unsanitary and often derelict houses, according to the DOJ.
The Southern California News Group has been reporting on the same residential rehab programs for years now.
Other cases highlighted by prosecutors involved $134 million in unnecessary arterial procedures that resulted in injury to patients and $138 million in fraudulent billings to Medicare from hospices where patients were not terminally ill.
“It is especially egregious when doctors and other health care professionals, who pledged to do no harm, resort to petty greed and criminality,” said Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney in California. “The cases announced today represent billions of dollars in intended losses. Every dollar drained out of our private and public health insurance systems is one less...
The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday announced charges against 15 people, including six medical professionals, for allegedly participating in schemes that collectively submitted $2 billion i...