WASHINGTON — Federal authorities indicted 53 people Wednesday for alleged schemes to cheat Medicare out of $50 million.
Suspects were arrested in Detroit, Miami and Denver as part of a wide-ranging effort by the government to crack down on those allegedly defrauding the government-funded health care program for the elderly and disabled.
Forty of the suspects were arrested and the rest were being sought, authorities said.
Prosecutors charge that the suspects concocted schemes to submit bogus claims to Medicare for treatments that were medically unnecessary and in many cases never provided. Some of the beneficiaries accepted cash payments in exchange for signing paperwork claiming they had received certain medical treatments, authorities said. The charges were filed against the operators of infusion therapy and physical therapy clinics.
The Associated Press
