73 Charged in Nationwide Medicare Fraud Scheme
Federal prosecutors around the country have filed charges against 73 people alleging a nationwide Medicare fraud scheme that defrauded the government out of more than $35 million. The U.S. Attorney in Manhattan has called this scheme the "single largest Medicare fraud ever perpetrated by a single criminal enterprise." Over the last four years, this group of Armenian-Americans used stolen identities of real doctors and patients to bill Medicare for over $100 million for goods and services that were never provided and completely fabricated. This health care fraud bust is only the latest in the government's efforts to combat abuse in federal program reimbursement. Given the new enforcement mechanisms and funding under this year's health care reform, we are likely to see the government continue to increase its efforts to take down fraudulent health care billing schemes.
For more on these indictments, see the New York Times article and the Washington Post article on the story.
