Feds Arrest Hundreds in Healthcare Raids

Last week, the federal government conducted nationwide raids of healthcare providers and facilities based on $1.3 billion in allegedly false billings.

In one day, the feds arrested 412 people in a coordinated takedown that netted 115 doctors, nurses, and other licensed professionals. The government also brought legal action to exclude 295 providers—including doctors, nurses, and pharmacists—from further participating in federal healthcare programs.

The government says the defendants schemed to defraud Medicare, Medicaid, and Tricare, which is the health-insurance program for veterans, servicemembers, and their families. It alleges that defendants billed for prescription drugs and other treatments or services that were medically unnecessary or never even provided.

The raids were spearheaded by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Here’s DOJ’s press release about it, and here’s a factsheet by HHS that tallies up the numbers. The raids were concentrated in Florida, Texas, Michigan, California, Illinois, New York, Louisiana, and Mississippi. But they also captured targets in over two dozen other states across the country.