Largest Health Care Fraud and Opioid Enforcement Action in Department of Justice History Results in Charges Against 345 Defendants Responsible for More than $6 Billion in Alleged Fraud Losses

U.S. Attorney’s Office – Eastern District of Texas, Sept. 30, 2020

Five Indicted in the Eastern District of Texas in Connection with the Nationwide Operation

BEAUMONT, Texas – The Department of Justice Criminal Division today announced a historic nationwide enforcement action involving 345 charged defendants across 51 federal districts, including the Eastern District of Texas. In conjunction with the takedown, CMS Center for Program Integrity announced that it has taken a record-breaking number of administrative actions related to telemedicine fraud, revoking the Medicare billing privileges of 256 additional medical professionals for their involvement in telemedicine schemes.

These defendants—more than 100 doctors, nurses and other licensed medical professionals—have been charged with submitting more than $6 billion in false and fraudulent claims to federal health care programs and private insurers, including more than $4.5 billion connected to telemedicine, more than $845 million connected to substance abuse treatment facilities, or “sober homes,” and more than $806 million connected to other health care fraud and illegal opioid distribution schemes across the country.

Today’s enforcement actions were led and coordinated by the Criminal Division, Fraud Section’s Health Care Fraud Unit, in conjunction with its Health Care Fraud and Appalachian Regional Prescription Opioid (ARPO) Strike Force program, and its core partners, the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, HHS-OIG, FBI, and DEA, as part of the department’s ongoing efforts to combat the devastating effects of health care fraud and the opioid epidemic. The cases announced today are being prosecuted by Health Care Fraud and ARPO Strike Force teams from the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, along with 43 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices nationwide, and agents from HHS-OIG, FBI, DEA, and other various federal and state law enforcement agencies.

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