107 people were apprehended for healthcare fraud in Los Angeles, Chicago, Tampa, Baton Rouge, Miami, Houston, and Detroit the week before last. Investigators allege that the defendants (in total) are responsible for around $450 million in illegal Medicare bills.
Wow.
As this blog and other sources have reported, the Obama administration has gone to great lengths to crack down on Medicare fraud in Southern California and beyond. Recent estimates suggest that around $20 billion of taxpayer funds have been recovered in various antifraud operations. This latest Medicare Fraud Strike Force action named a diverse roster of defendants, including therapists, social workers, physicians, ambulance businesses, healthcare companies, and pharmacists. Annual estimates of healthcare fraud in this country are mindboggling. Upwards of nearly $100 billion may be pilfered every year through various fraudulent enterprises and scams.
Considering that America spends around 17% of its gross domestic product on healthcare, it’s no surprise that these figures are staggering. As long as “the pot is big,” we can probably expect that people will try to take advantage of loopholes in the system or invent schemes to siphon off some of those funds.
If you or someone you care about has been wrapped up in a Los Angeles healthcare, insurance fraud, or other white collar crime investigation, you are probably feeling somewhat terrified and confused. What should you do to defend yourself against the charges? What, if anything, did you do wrong? Have any of the associates who helped you plan or execute what you did done things that might compound your legal woes? For instance, maybe someone that you tasked with overbilling Medicare also engaged in prescription medication trafficking on the side, illegally. If so, your case could be further complicated.
In short: you have many, many questions, and you would like concrete, knowledgeable answers, so that you can get some sleep at night and you can plan your life and your defense strategy.
Attorney Michael Kraut of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers has tremendous experience dealing with sophisticated and large Los Angeles healthcare fraud cases. Attorney Kraut is no stranger to the prosecutorial side – he actually spent 14+ years of his career working as a Deputy District Attorney. And now, acting as a Southern California criminal defense lawyer, Mr. Kraut leverages his knowledge of prosecutors and understanding of the law from different angles to deliver extremely strategic and successful results for his clients.