Trump administration charges 455 people, including doctors, with $6.5 billion in healthcare fraud

(CNN) — In the Trump administration’s latest effort to crack down on fraud, the Justice Department on Tuesday unveiled charges against 455 people for their alleged participation in healthcare fraud and opioid abuse schemes.

The defendants, who included 90 doctors and other healthcare professionals, were involved in $6.5 billion worth of fraud that involved false claims and resulted in significant harm to patients, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.

“This is just the beginning. Fraudsters can no longer rip off American taxpayers,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said at a press conference Tuesday. “If you seek to harm or cheat Americans, we will find you, seize any assets and prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law.”

Officials highlighted one defendant who they claim rubber stamped a student’s cardiovascular test as normal without alerting the family that his heart was enlarged. The 18-year-old college basketball player, Kaiden Francis, died weeks later during a workout.

A record 45 states and territories participated in this year’s National Health Care Fraud Takedown, which Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. noted during the press conference. The Trump administration has clamped down on Medicare and Medicaid fraud in several, primarily Democratic-led states, leading their governors to claim political bias.

The administration has been particularly focused on healthcare fraud. Dr. Mehmet Oz, who runs the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, has been one of the leading players — drawing on his TV background to film videos in areas he claims are hotspots for fraud. The agency is looking to stop payments for fraudulent claims before they are made.

“Healthcare fraud steals from taxpayers, exploits vulnerable patients and puts lives at risk,” Kennedy said in a statement.

The cases included fraudulent wound care claims, which resulted in $2 billion in Medicare payments to one Arizona company and another $906 million scheme in Texas. In another case, one California hospice owner allegedly paid a funeral home employee for information about the recently deceased to fraudulently bill Medicare for a few days of hospice services.

The takedown also included charges against 295 defendants and more than $518 million in false claims submitted to Medicaid — the largest number of people charged and funds lost to fraud in the Justice Department’s history.

Last year, the Justice Department charged 324 defendants with more than $14.6 billion in alleged fraud during its annual takedown effort.

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