Doctors and Nurses Arrested In Massive Medicare Scam

Ninety-four people were arrested and charged yesterday for filing close to 4,000 false Medicare claims totaling around $251 million dollars. Among those charged were numerous doctors and nurses. The arrests were part of a massive Medicare bust coordinated throughout New York City, Baton Rouge, Miami, Detroit, and Houston.

Wiretaps revealed that doctors and nurses gave kick-back payments to patients and undercover officers in exchange for using their Medicare numbers during medical visits. In many cases, those involved paid patients to receive unnecessary medical procedures and tests. In other cases, services were never rendered, yet were still billed. Medicare scams such as these, cost the federal government billions of dollars each year that then must consequently be absorbed by tax payers.

Bravo to law enforcement for catching those involved! It disgusts me that doctors and nurses took part in these scams. As a patient, if your doctor or nurse ever tries to offer you money or other rewards in exchange for using your Medicare information, or to receive unnecessary medical procedures, inform your local law enforcement immediately! Hopefully, the government and law enforcement will continue to crackdown on these types of scams and these arrests will send a message to doctors and nurses that criminal behavior such as this will not be tolerated.