Medicare fraud

The Department of Justice charged 193, including 76 licensed medical professionals, throughout the country as part of the action. Many of those indicted are from Florida.

A recently unsealed lawsuit accuses Aledade, the largest US independent primary care network, of developing billing software that boosted revenues by making patients appear sicker than they were.

Elizabeth Hernandez, 45, routinely billed more than 24 hours of “office visits” in a day and pocketed about $1.6 million, federal prosecutors said.

Some seniors got dozens of COVID tests they never ordered. Bad actors may have used seniors' Medicare information to improperly bill the federal government — and could do it again, investigators say.

Arguments on Tuesday center on a powerful tool for fighting fraud in government contracts and programs. The case examines whether major pharmacies knowingly overcharged Medicare and Medicaid.

A House bill would close one of a laundry list of oversight gaps revealed in a recent investigation of the system regulators use to ban fraudsters from billing government health programs.

Health experts are warning older adults about an uptick in misleading marketing tactics that might lead some to sign up for Medicare Advantage plans that don’t cover their doctors or prescriptions and drive up their out-of-pocket costs.

Oklahoma-based Carter Healthcare is accused of overbilling Medicare and billing for therapy that patients didn’t need between 2014 and 2016.

Officials have threatened to penalize the private companies selling Medicare Advantage and drug plans if they or agents working on their behalf mislead consumers.

The Justice Department began investigating the allegations after they were first raised in 2013 by the medical school's former chief operating officer.