The Justice Department on Tuesday charged 19 defendants in alleged Philadelphia-area schemes that generated more than $4 million in fraudulent Medicare and Medicaid claims, while expanding its Northeast Health Care Fraud Strike Force into the city.The defendants include home health aides, Medicaid recipients, and owners and employees of home care companies, according to the DOJ’s announcement. Officials alleged that some billed Medicaid for services that were never provided, including care purportedly delivered while aides or recipients were incarcerated, hospitalized, traveling overseas, or working other jobs.The charges were announced alongside a partnership between the DOJ’s National Fraud Enforcement Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The new Philadelphia office will focus on healthcare-fraud schemes, particularly those targeting Medicaid home-care programs.
“Home care funding exists to assist America’s elderly and most vulnerable — not to fund schemes in which aides claim be providing care while incarcerated or vacationing in Miami and Saudi Arabia,” Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald said in a statement. “Today’s charges and the expansion of our Northeast Strike Force into the Eastern District of Pennsylvania send a clear message to fraudsters in the region.”Nationally, the Health Care Fraud Strike Force model has prosecuted more than 6,200 defendants who collectively billed federal healthcare programs and private insurers more than $45 billion, according to the DOJ.The Philadelphia cases include allegations that four defendants submitted more than $440,000 in Medicaid claims for home health services that never occurred. Federal authorities also alleged that one defendant submitted claims for home care while traveling overseas, including on a trip to Miami documented in social media posts shared by the DOJ.Social media posts shared by the Justice Department depict a defendant’s trip to Miami while he allegedly billed Medicaid for home care services in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. (Department of Justice)
