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Almost 200 individuals have been charged in a large nationwide crackdown on well being care fraud involving false claims price greater than $2.7 billion, the U.S. Division of Justice stated.
Lawyer Basic Merrick Garland introduced expenses Thursday towards medical doctors, nurses and others within the U.S. in quite a lot of fraud schemes, together with a $900 million scheme in Arizona that focused dying sufferers.
“It doesn’t matter should you’re a trafficker in a drug cartel, a company govt, or a medical skilled employed by a well being care firm. Should you revenue from the illegal distribution of managed substances, you’ll be held accountable,” Garland stated in an announcement.
Within the Arizona case, prosecutors have accused two homeowners of wound care corporations of accepting greater than $330 million in kickbacks as a part of a scheme to fraudulently invoice Medicare for amniotic wound grafts, bandages used to assist wounds heal.
Nurses had been pressured to put the grafts in aged sufferers who didn’t want them, together with individuals in hospice care, the Justice Division stated. Some sufferers died the day they obtained the grafts or inside days, courtroom papers say.
In lower than two years, greater than $900 million in false claims had been submitted to Medicare for transplants utilized in fewer than 500 sufferers, prosecutors stated.
The homeowners of the wound care corporations, Alexandra Gehrke and Jeffrey King, had been arrested this month at Phoenix airport as they boarded a flight to London, in line with courtroom paperwork calling on a decide to maintain them behind bars as they await trial.
An legal professional for Gehrke declined to remark, and an legal professional for King didn’t instantly reply to an e mail from The Related Press.
Authorities allege that Gehrke and King, who married this yr, knew expenses had been coming and ready to flee. At their residence, authorities discovered a ebook titled How To Disappear: Erase Your Digital Footprint, Go away False Trails, and Vanish And not using a Hint, courtroom paperwork present. In considered one of their suitcases for his or her flight was a ebook titled Prison Legislation Handbook: Know Your Rights, Survive The System, the papers say.
Gehrke and King lived lavishly from the scheme, prosecutors allege, itemizing in courtroom paperwork luxurious vehicles, an almost $6 million residence and greater than $520,000 in gold bars, cash and jewellery. Officers seized greater than $52 million from Gehrke’s private and enterprise financial institution accounts after her arrest, prosecutors say.
A complete of 193 individuals had been charged in a sequence of separate instances that spanned about two weeks within the nationwide well being care fraud investigation. Authorities have seized greater than $230 million in money, luxurious vehicles and different belongings. The Division of Justice periodically conducts these sweeping well being care fraud efforts with the aim of deterring different potential offenders.
In one other Arizona case, a lady is accused of billing the state’s Medicaid company for substance abuse therapies that served no function or had been by no means offered, prosecutors stated.
One other case includes a scheme in Florida to distribute misbranded HIV medicine. Prosecutors say the medicine had been purchased on the black market and resold to unsuspecting pharmacies, which then disbursed the medicine to sufferers.
In some instances, sufferers got bottles of medicines apart from these listed on the label. One affected person was knocked unconscious for twenty-four hours after taking what he thought was his HIV remedy however was truly an antipsychotic, prosecutors say.
US expenses 193 individuals over $2.7 billion well being care fraud scheme | Enterprise & Economics Information
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