WASHINGTON — Almost 200 personas in the United States have been accused of participating in a scheme to submit false claims for medical care totaling more than $2.7 billion, the Justice Department said Thursday.
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced indictments against doctors, nurses and others across the United States accused of a variety of scams, including a $900 million scheme in Arizona targeting dying patients.
“Whether you are a drug cartel trafficker, a corporate executive, or a medical professional employed by a healthcare company, if you profit from the illegal distribution of controlled substances, you will be held accountable,” Garland said in a statement.
In the Arizona case, prosecutors charged two wound care business owners with accepting more than $330 million in bribes as part of a scheme to fraudulently bill Medicare for amniotic wound grafts, which are dressings to help to heal injuries.
Nurses were pressured to apply the dressings to elderly patients who did not need them, including people in hospice facilities, the Justice Department said. Some patients died the day they received the dressings or within a few days, according to court documents.
In less than two years, more than $900 million in fraudulent claims were submitted to Medicare for dressings that were used on fewer than 500 patients, prosecutors said.
The owners of the wound care companies, Alexandra Gehrke and Jeffrey King, were arrested this month at the Phoenix airport as they boarded a flight to London, according to court documents urging judges to keep them behind bars while they await trial. An attorney for Gehrke declined to comment, and an attorney for King has not responded to an email.
Source: With information from AP
