On April 20, 2022, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a nationwide coordinated enforcement action targeting COVID-19-related fraud involving charges against 21 individuals across nine federal districts, and over $149 million in alleged false claims submitted to federal programs.[1]
This marks the first significant DOJ enforcement action since Attorney General Merrick Garland named Associate Deputy Attorney General Kevin Chambers as the Director for COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement on March 10, an appointment President Biden previewed in his State of the Union address on March 1.
DOJ’s enforcement action covers a broad range of alleged schemes, including misappropriation of Provider Relief Fund (PRF) payments for personal use, manufacture and distribution of fake COVID-19 vaccination record cards, and billing for health care services that were either unnecessary or never provided. A major area of reported enforcement involves clinical laboratories, with enforcement in that sector accounting for at least $125 million of the total $149 million in alleged false billings reported in connection with DOJ’s national takedown. Specific allegations involve, among other things, kickbacks, money laundering, unnecessary or excessive laboratory testing, and schemes where confidential patient information was obtained from drive-thru testing sites and then used in connection with false claims for complex in-office patient visits that never occurred. DOJ has issued a detailed summary of...
A popular social media conspiracy theory about a recent cluster of hantavirus cases claims that the word “hanta” means “scam,” “fraud,” or “nonsense” in “Hebrew slang.” That’s more or less where t...