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The Justice Department yesterday unsealed criminal indictments against 53 people for allegedly bilking the Medicare system, the latest step in a wide-ranging effort to prevent fraud that costs the federally funded health program billions of dollars each year.
Federal agents arrested dozens of people in Miami and Detroit for allegedly submitting Medicare claims
for $50 million in treatments that were unneeded and sometimes never provided, authorities said.
The action was announced at a news conference in the District by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, a signal that the Obama administration is giving the issue high priority as it pushes for legislative reforms in health care.
The arrests come
a month after officials at the Justice Department and HHS committed to sending investigators and prosecutors to Detroit and Houston, following
earlier health fraud crackdowns in Miami and Los Angeles.
Government analysts working for the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team are poring over electronic billing data and crime patterns to better target their efforts."
