The Department of Justice announced criminal charges against 21 defendants in nine federal districts across the United States for their alleged participation in various health care-related fraud schemes that exploited the COVID-19 pandemic. These cases allegedly resulted in over $149 million in COVID-19-related false billings to federal programs and theft from federally funded pandemic assistance programs. In one case, a medical professional was charged with a scheme that allegedly involved billing for sham telemedicine encounters that did not occur and agreeing to order unnecessary genetic testing in exchange for access to telehealth patients. Read a story from the Associated Press and a Department of Justice press release.
SMP Resource Center products often contain links to copyrighted material. The SMP Resource Center is providing these links as a convenience and for informational purposes in our efforts to report and educate on Medicare fraud; they do not constitute a guarantee, endorsement, or approval by SMP of any of the information available on the external site. SMP bears no responsibility for the accuracy, legality, or content of the external site or for that of subsequent links. If you have any questions or concerns about the links provided, please contact the SMP Center at nliebau@smpresource.org.