According to the Department of Justice, approximately 300 people in at least 25 states have been charged with health insurance fraud in the last three days in a renewed effort to crack down against false claims.
Reports indicate that those arrested accounted for more than $900 million in fraudulent billings to Medicare and Medicaid. The billings were the result of services that were deemed medically unnecessary, or for services that were never provided at all.
NBC News reports that one fifth of those arrested were licensed medical professionals, including 30 doctors. According to CBS News, about half of the cases included involved some sort of home health care fraud, while 25 percent include pharmaceutical fraud.
“Above all, they (the wrongdoers) abuse basic bonds of trust — between doctor and patient; between pharmacist and doctor; between taxpayer and government — and pervert them to their own ends," Attorney General Loretta Lynch said, according to NBC News.
Alex Hider is a writer for the E.W. Scripps National Desk. Follow him on Twitter @alexhider.
