With its latest announcement this week of a criminal crackdown of 21 defendants for their alleged participation in various health care related fraud schemes, DOJ has underscored its commitment to aggressively pursue individuals and companies alleged to have exploited the COVID-19 pandemic. Among these actions are a collection involving alleged billing fraud arising from COVID testing; one set of defendants is alleged to have taken the data from patients seeking COVID tests and submitting bills to the federal healthcare programs for office visits that never occurred, while another set of actions involve obtaining patient samples and then billing for more expensive lab tests. Still others involve defendants alleged to have sold fake COVID vaccination cards.
In addition to pursuing this type of garden-variety healthcare fraud, DOJ’s most recent charges reflect a continued pursuit of claims against providers perceived to have abused CMS’s waivers of certain telehealth coverage and reimbursement requirements to enable expanded access to care during the public health emergency. According to one of the indictments, the defendant medical professional took advantage of these waivers by billing for sham telehealth encounters that did not occur and agreeing to order medically unnecessary genetic testing and DME in exchange for referrals of patients. Among other things, the defendant allegedly signed orders for genetic tests and DME based solely on brief telephonic conversations with...
The Animal Rescue League of Iowa warns pet owners about scammers posing as representatives and demanding money to reclaim lost pets DES MOINES, Iowa — The Animal Rescue League of Iowa has issued a ...