Feds crack down on Medicare fraud in Florida
Medicare fraud prosecutions are on the rise in South Florida after federal law enforcement stepped up efforts to root out health care fraud, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida announced Sept. 30.
During fiscal 2008, the South Florida Health Care Fraud Strike Force charged 245 defendants with filing false claims worth a total of $793.5 million. Those numbers were up from 2007, when prosecutors charged 197 defendants for Medicare fraud totaling $638 million. In 2006, 111 defendants were targeted for $138 million in fraudulent billing.
Most of the 2008 cases involved claims for durable medical equipment either never prescribed by physicians or never delivered to Medicare beneficiaries.
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