Dive Brief:
- A nationwide takedown of healthcare fraud suspects has resulted in 73 south Florida residents being charged this week in Miami, the "capital of Medicare fraud," according to the Miami Herald. The nationwide total number of healthcare fraud suspects arrrested this week is 243.
- The fraudulent claims in the Florida sweep amounted to $262 million, while the national total amounted to $712 million.
- The Miami suspects included dozens accused of abusing the Part D prescription drug program.
Dive Insight:
This week's healthcare fraud crackdown was the largest in the past decade, said U.S. Attorney Wifredo Ferrer. One-third of all defendants were centralized in Miami. "It's unacceptable, staggering and pretty shocking," Ferrer told the media.
FBI special agent in charge, George Piro, put the onus on Medicare bureaucrats to "attack the problem from both ends," suggesting that "tougher regulations and oversight are key to reducing the amount of fraud from occurring in the first place.”
Many of the Miami cases center on pharmacies paying kickbacks to patients or patient recruiters for Medicare claims they used to defraud the Part D program.