Top Officials Arrested in Massive Medicare Fraud

Miami, FLCharges have been laid in another huge fraudulent Medicare claim, clearly showing that qui tam whistleblower lawsuits involving Medicare fraud are increasing and coincidentally, AARP has become involved in medicare fraud targeting the elderly.

US prosecutors arrested four people yesterday—two of whom were top officials of a leading chain of community mental health centers—connected with a Medicare fraud involving about $200 million in medical claims. The company involved, American Therapeutic Corp, is among the nation's largest chain of community mental health centers licensed by Medicare.

According to the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida, the four people conspired to charge the federal health insurance plan for the elderly and disabled for mental health services that were either unnecessary or never provided to patients. The elderly--many of whom suffered from Alzheimer's disease or other severe dementia--lived in assisted-living facilities. These assisted-living facilities allegedly received kickbacks for the referrals to American Therapeutic.

The four have been charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States and to receive healthcare kickbacks and to pay healthcare kickbacks.

The arrest comes just one week after an Armenian-American crime group was charged in New York with operating phantom healthcare clinics that tried to cheat the federal program out up to $163 million, which US authorities claimed was the "the largest Medicare fraud scheme ever perpetrated by a single criminal enterprise."