Press Releases
Chicago U.S. Attorney’s Office Creates Unit to Prosecute Healthcare Fraud
CHICAGO — Joel R. Levin, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, today announced the creation of a new unit dedicated to the prosecution of criminal health care fraud violations. The newly created Health Care Fraud Unit will operate within the office’s Criminal Division. The unit will be tasked with prosecuting defendants in all types of health care fraud, from providers who engage in fraudulent billing schemes to doctors who falsify patients’ diagnoses to justify expensive tests or procedures that aren’t medically necessary.
Historically Largest National Medicare Fraud Takedown Sees 12 Charged in Chicago
CHICAGO – Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell announced today a nationwide takedown by Medicare Fraud Strike Force operations in 17 districts, resulting in charges against 243 individuals, including 46 doctors, nurses and other licensed medical professionals, for their alleged participation in Medicare fraud schemes involving approximately $712 million in false billings. In addition, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) also suspended a number of providers using its suspension authority as provided in the Affordable Care Act. This coordinated takedown is the largest in Strike Force history, both in terms of the number of defendants charged and loss amount. Zachary T. Fardon, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, announced thirteen defendants who were charged in four local cases as part of the national package.