Federal agents bust Medicare fraud schemes
19/9/2008 16:56
US federal and state investigators launched a crackdown on Medicare fraud
schemes in Southern California yesterday, arresting 18 suspects, authorities
said.
The suspects were allegedly engaged in US$33 million various schemes
involving the fraudulent ordering of power wheelchairs, hospital beds, feeding
kits and specialized shoes for diabetics, according to the Justice
Department.
Clinic owners and medical professionals were among those
arrested, the department said.
The arrests were made by the Medicare Fraud
Strike Force, a team of federal and state investigators that began operating in
the Los Angeles area earlier this year.
Since its inception last year, the
strike force has indicted 175 people alleged to have billed Medicare for more
than US$0.5 billion.
"We're talking about losing billions of dollars annually
through fraud and abuse," said Kirk Ogrosky, the Justice Department prosecutor
in charge of the strike force. "And all of us taxpayers are footing the bill for
this."
Matthew Friedrich, acting assistant attorney general, said crackdowns
like the raids yesterday would help protect the integrity of Medicare "for the
more than 40 million Americans who rely on the Medicare program for health
coverage."
Investigators used "real time" access to Medicare claims data to
identify potentially fraudulent billing from among more than 10,000 medical
equipment suppliers in the Los Angeles area, authorities said.
Xinhua
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