The Department of Justice announced Thursday that the agency charged 18 criminal defendants, including doctors and testing suppliers, in the largest-yet enforcement action against COVID-19 healthcare fraud schemes that resulted in over $490 million in false federal billing.
The enforcement comes after federal pandemic-related healthcare subsidies spurred the DOJ to create a COVID-19 fraud task force agency in May 2021 to crack down on industry fraud.
So far, the agency has charged 53 defendants and convicted 20 in the past three years of healthcare-related COVID-19 schemes that cost the federal government over $784 million in funds, according to the DOJ.
