-Source-The Washington Post-
The Justice Department charged more than 600 people, including 165 doctors and other medical professionals, with making $2 billion in false billings in what Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Thursday was the nation’s largest ever health care fraud takedown.
The cases are connected to the nation’s ongoing drug overdose crisis, which killed nearly 64,000 people in 2016, Sessions said. About two-thirds of the overdose deaths were caused by opioids, led by illicit fentanyl.
“It is the deadliest drug epidemic in the history of this country,” Sessions said at a news conference. “We have never seen anything like it. Some of our most trusted medical professionals look at their patients, vulnerable people suffering from addiction, and they see dollar signs.”
Of those arrested, 162 defendants, including 76 doctors, were charged for their roles in prescribing and distributing opioids and other dangerous narcotics.Many of these fraudsters have stolen tax dollars, and many have helped flood our streets with drugs,” Sessions said. “One doctor allegedly defrauded Medicare of more than $112 million by distributing 2.2 million unnecessary dosages of drugs like oxycodone and fentanyl.” Last year, the Justice Department charged more than 400 people across the country with participating in health care fraud scams totaling about $1.3 billion in false billings, including for the prescription and distribution of opioids.
The defendants are accused of having participated in schemes to submit claims to Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE, the military’s health care program, and private insurance companies for treatments that were medically unnecessary and often never provided, according to court documents. Read more