MASSDEVICE ON CALL — A coordinated Dept. of Justice effort with operations in 7 cities filed charges against 91 healthcare workers accused of falsely billing Medicare for a collective total surpassing $429 million, one of the largest take-downs in agency history.
The allegations include $230 million in home healthcare fraud, more than $100 million in mental healthcare fraud, more than $49 million in ambulance transportation fraud and millions more in other frauds, according to a DoJ press release.
"Today’s enforcement actions reveal an alarming and unacceptable trend of individuals attempting to exploit federal health care programs to steal billions in taxpayer dollars for personal gain," Attorney General Holder said in prepared remarks. "Such activities not only siphon precious taxpayer resources, drive up healthcare costs, and jeopardize the strength of the Medicare program – they also disproportionately victimize the most vulnerable members of society, including elderly, disabled and impoverished Americans."
Charges against the accused include conspiracy to commit health care fraud, health care fraud, violations of the anti-kickback statutes and money laundering associated with a variety of alleged fraud schemes for various medical treatments and services.
Those accused include health practitioners in Miami, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Brooklyn and Baton Rouge and Chicago.
"Today’s coordinated actions represent one of the largest Medicare fraud take-downs in Dept. of Justice history, as measured by the amount of alleged fraudulent billings," Assistant Attorney General Breuer said in an agency statement. "We have made it one of the department’s missions to hold accountable those who abuse the Medicare program for personal profit. And there are Medicare fraudsters in prisons across the country – some who will be there for decades – who can attest to our determination, and our effectiveness."
News staple buys into healthcare
Washington Post Co, responsible for the Washington Post news enterprise, strayed ever farther from its journalism foundation by buying a majority stake in private home healthcare and hospice services provider Celtic Healthcare.
Read more
Docs push back against human, financial costs of unnecessary care
Physicians leading the cause to reform healthcare point to overly aggressive treatment and unnecessary interventions as the cause of an estimated 30,000 deaths among Medicare recipients and as much as $800 billion in wasted healthcare spending.
Read more
Boston Children’s Hospital pilots program for growing heart valves for growing kids
Surgeons at Boston Children’s Hospital successfully implanted a handful of children with a modified version of a prosthetic heart valve that’s designed to expand as the child grows, helping to avoid the need for replacement surgeries.
Read more
Smartphones are good enough for telemedicine, Mayo study says
Smartphone technology is advanced enough to successfully transmit medical images to specialists for evaluation, with image quality from a smartphone now able to match those viewed on desktop computers, according to a Mayo Clinic study.
Read more
