455 Charged in National Health Care Fraud Takedown Involving Over $6.5 Billion in Alleged False Claims
The Justice Department announced the 2026 National Health Care Fraud Takedown on June 23, 2026, charging 455 defendants, including 90 doctors and other licensed medical professionals, over their alleged participation in health care fraud schemes involving more than $6.5 billion in false claims. The cases span 56 federal districts and 45 states and territories, with all 50 state Medicaid Fraud Control Units participating, the most in Department history. The government seized more than $182 million in cash, luxury vehicles, jewelry and other assets. All charges are allegations, and defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
The largest scheme cluster involved fraudulent wound care: 11 defendants across six districts were charged over amniotic allografts, including an Arizona case in which providers allegedly billed Medicare more than $4 billion for one company's products, with more than $2 billion paid, the products resold at mark-ups of up to 2,000 percent and about 40 percent allegedly paid out as kickbacks. In the Southern District of Texas, a nurse practitioner was charged in a $906 million allograft scheme. Other cases included a $67 million Illinois Medicaid behavioral-health scheme, a $27.7 million hospice scheme in the Central District of California in which information about recently deceased patients was allegedly bought from a funeral home employee, and an $89 million scheme in the Southern District of Florida involving unnecessary cardiovascular tests on student athletes, one of whom died.
Alongside the criminal charges, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services suspended 1,079 providers and revoked billing privileges for 1,403, and 48 civil monetary settlements totaled more than $73 million. Over a two-week period, international cooperation brought back defendants from Cyprus, Estonia and the Philippines, including one of the FBI's most wanted fraudsters, the Department said.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：美国司法部总部 Robert F. Kennedy 大楼（华盛顿特区）。Baseball Watcher 摄，CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building, Washington, D.C. Photo by Baseball Watcher, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
