The Federal Bureau of Investigation has arrested 53 people in Michigan, Florida, and Colorado in a $50 million federal health-insurance fraud scheme, in which doctors allegedly paid cash to patients for treatments that were never rendered. That’s according to the BBC, which notes that the doctors used Medicare, the government’s insurance for the aged and disabled, in the scandal that involves medical workers, patients, and company executives.

News of the bust, part of a larger investigation, was still breaking yesterday as a grand jury in Detroit returned indictments that focused largely on HIV-AIDS drugs and therapy, reports The Washington Post.

“We will strike back against those whose fraudulent schemes not only undermine a program upon which 45 million aged and disabled Americans depend, but which also contribute directly to rising health-care costs,” said Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. (pictured) in a press conference while flanked by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III.

Sebelius said the feds were prepared to use “all the weapons in the federal government’s arsenal to target those who are defrauding the American taxpayer.” The FBI has some 2,400 open investigations and is using everything from undercover agents to wiretaps to expose wrongdoing.

Posted 6/26/2009 at 1:30 pm by Michael de Yoanna
Crime, Health and Environment, Panorama :: Permalink :: Comments (1)

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