The U.S. Justice Department has filed criminal liabilities against 193 people, including 76 medical professionals, for participating in healthcare fraud summing $2.75 billion, declared on Thursday.
DOJ Charges 193 Individuals in Health Care Fraud
The operation, ranging two weeks, targeted people liable for unlawfully offering large volumes of the stimulant Adderall. It also revealed $176 million in fraudulent actions connected to drug and alcohol medications, with accusations including incorrect billing to Medicaid for insufficient or non-existent medication.
Attorney General Merrick Garland emphasized these efforts, mentioning that the crackdown also addressed fraudulent telemedicine schemes, with 36 defendants collectively indicted of submitting over $1.1 billion in false claims to Medicare.
Garland highlighted the Justice Department's responsibility to prosecute those who deceive Americans, abuse taxpayer-funded programs, and imperil public health for financial gain.
The enforcement action, administered across 32 federal districts, led to the confiscation of over $231 million in cash, luxury vehicles, gold, and other assets.
One notable case involved charges against seven individuals linked to the San Francisco-based telehealth startup Done Global for illicitly distributing Adderall.
Allegations included a nurse practitioner prescribing 1.5 million Adderall pills with minimal patient interaction. The company's founder and lead physician had already faced charges earlier in the month.
Authorities suggested that these fraudulent activities might have contributed to reported shortages of Adderall in recent years.
The investigations were coordinated by the Justice Department's criminal fraud unit, alongside the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, FBI, and Drug Enforcement Administration.
Officials underscored the growing role of data analytics in identifying fraud schemes that jeopardize patient safety and strain government resources.
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Accountability for Illegal Substance Distribution and Massive Fraud Schemes
Attorney General Merrick Garland stated that regardless of whether you are a drug cartel trafficker, corporate executive, or medical professional, if you profit from the illegal distribution of controlled substances, you will be held accountable.
The charges allege that five individuals and a digital technology company were involved in a $900-million fraud scheme in Arizona related to amniotic wound grafts and the illegal distribution of Adderall and other stimulants.
Prosecutors claim two owners of a wound care company fraudulently billed Medicare $330 million by pressuring nurse practitioners to apply unnecessary wound grafts, including to hospice patients who died the day they received the care.
Company owners Alexandra Gehrke and Jeffrey King were arrested at Phoenix airport before boarding a flight to London. Officials found evidence in their home suggesting they planned to erase digital footprints.
The DOJ also alleges corporate executives committed a $90 million fraud scheme involving adulterated HIV medication, $146 million in fake addiction treatment schemes, over $1.1 billion in telemedicine and laboratory fraud, and $450 million in other healthcare fraud and opioid schemes.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas emphasized his department's role in the multi-agency investigation, declaring that this action sends a clear and strong message from federal law enforcement: healthcare providers and prescribers who exploit their patients for profit and ignore the fundamental rule of medical care, "do not harm," will be held accountable.
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