Eighteen people, including doctors, have been charged with Covid-19 healthcare fraud that has generated lots of of tens of millions of dollars in fake bills and theft from federally funded programs, Department of Justice he said Thursday.
The fees, which span nine federal judicial districts, include the most important coordinated U.S. law enforcement motion targeting fraud that “takes advantage of the Covid pandemic,” the Department of Justice said in a press release.
One California doctor, Anthony Hao Dinh, has been accused of allegedly filing roughly $230 million in false claims to the Covid-19 Uninsured Program of the Federal Health Resources and Services Administration.
In keeping with the Justice Department, Dinh, who practices in Orange County, was the second largest payer of this program within the country. The scheme was intended to present uninsured patients access to Covid testing and treatment, but stopped working last yr because of lack of funds.
Prosecutors said some of Dinh’s claims were for services that weren’t performed or weren’t medically crucial. It was also alleged to account for the treatment program for patients who were insured.
Dinh allegedly used over $100 million in fraud proceeds to trade high-risk options.
Dinh and two others are also charged with allegedly filing greater than 70 fraudulent loan applications, which received greater than $3 million under the federal Payday Protection Program and the Economic Injury Loan Program.
One other defendant in California, lab owner Lourdes Navarro, is accused of filing greater than $358 million in false lab test claims to Medicare, which is a federal senior medical insurance program, to HRSA and a non-public insurance company.
The Navarro Laboratory has conducted Covid screening tests for nursing homes and schools and has allegedly increased reimbursement by adding claims for respiratory pathogen panel tests that providers and facility administrators didn’t procure.
The Department of Justice said other cases announced Thursday involved suppliers of over-the-counter Covid testing kits.
Medicare began last April cover free of charge as much as eight such tests per 30 days for beneficiaries who’ve requested them.
But some providers allegedly “sought to use the scheme” by repeatedly providing patients with dozens of Covid tests “that they didn’t want or need,” the Department of Justice said.
A physician and salesman in Florida were accused of allegedly buying Medicare beneficiary ID numbers and mail-in tests to beneficiaries who had not requested them.
This led to $8.4 million in false Medicare claims, the DOJ said.
Other cases concerned the alleged production and distribution of fake Covid vaccination cards.
The defendants within the cases are three doctors working at a small midwife practice in Latest York who allegedly distributed nearly 2,700 counterfeit Covid vaccine cards to individuals who had not been vaccinated.
The Department of Justice said the midwives practice was one of the busiest vaccination sites within the state. But as a substitute of administering the Covid vaccine, the defendants allegedly destroyed vials of vaccines intended for patients, the Department of Justice said.
Two people in Utah have also been charged with allegedly manufacturing and selling roughly 120,000 fake Covid vaccine cards. Prosecutors say these defendants sold the cards across america, especially in areas with tighter restrictions on Covid vaccinations.
The Department of Justice said those accused of distributing fake vaccine cards “deliberately sought to obstruct” the federal government’s efforts to implement a nationwide Covid vaccine program.
“The Department of Justice is not going to tolerate those that have exploited the pandemic for private gain and stolen taxpayer dollars,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a press release.
“This unprecedented enforcement motion against defendants across the country makes it clear that the Department is using all available resources to combat and prevent COVID-19 fraud and protect the integrity of taxpayer-funded programs.”
Fees come months after the department Created three strike force teams to step up efforts to combat and prevent Covid fraud. Also they are following similar criminal allegations related to Covid fraud in April 2022 AND May 2021.
In its announcement Thursday, the Department of Justice said it had confiscated greater than $16 million in money in reference to the alleged schemes.