The Department of Justice announced a sweeping take-down of doctors and others they say lured vulnerable patients into needless surgical procedures, sham treatment programs and bogus hospice care, bilking taxpayers for nearly $2 billion, according to charges released Thursday. <\/p>\n
Among the most chilling allegations, two Angelenos were charged with paying so-called \u201cbody brokers\u201d in Texas to recruit homeless residents from out of state and those in 12-step programs into sham sober living homes in California, where they were allegedly signed up for pricey insurance policies and frequently left to languish in decrepit squats. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis was not treatment, it was not recovery. It was exploitation,\u201d said Colin McDonald, assistant U.S. attorney general for the National Fraud Enforcement Division. <\/p>\n
In another case, an Anaheim cardiothoracic surgeon and a Tarzana chiropractor allegedly teamed up to steer patients into needless and sometimes repeated X-ray guided procedures to score plaque from their arteries in what McDonald called \u201can assembly line of fraud.\u201d <\/p>\n
Three more Angelenos were charged with strong-arming local seniors into hospice care when none of them were dying \u2014 a form of fraud for which \u201cLos Angeles has become ground zero,\u201d McDonald said. <\/p>\n
Prosecutors called it \u201cone of the top dollar take-downs in the state of California.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Justice Department said in a news release that 15 defendants had been charged, including six medical professionals. Federal authorities said eight people had been arrested, with five of them expected to make their initial appearances this afternoon in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles. Two others were scheduled to appear in the Northern District of Texas, and one in the Northern District of Illinois. It\u2019s unclear whether they are represented by attorneys; they have not yet entered pleas in response to the charges.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration has cast public benefits fraud among its arch-villains, blaming bad actors in blue states \u2014 and often the states themselves \u2014 for the sharply rising cost of care.<\/p>\n
\u201cCalifornia has a fraud problem,\u201d said First Assist. U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli, who sought to connect the cases with his office\u2019s simultaneous attempt to sequester midterm ballots it says were issued to noncitizens. \u201cWhether it\u2019s hospice fraud, or healthcare fraud or election fraud, California does fraud best.\u201d <\/p>\n
Rates of Medicaid and Medicare fraud exploded in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many rules were loosened and oversight strained by efforts to expand care. <\/p>\n