Over 200 healthcare workers across the country have been charged by federal prosecutors with allegedly defrauding Medicare and Medicaid, including 11 individuals from New Orleans.
In total, 243 individuals, including nurses, pharmacy owners and doctors, and 11 New Orleanians were allegedly involved in defrauding the entitlement programs out of approximately $712 million.
The 11 New Orleans individuals involved in the case are allegedly responsible for defrauding Medicare and Medicaid out of $110 million in healthcare and psychotherapy schemes.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch said those charged were involved in billing for equipment that was never provided, billing for care that was never needed and billing for services that were never rendered.
In one of the cases, four individuals that operated a companies in Louisiana and California “that allegedly sent talking glucose monitors, or TGMs, to Medicare beneficiaries regardless of whether they were needed or requested,” according to the AP report.
The two companies apparently billed Medicare $38 million for the devices and Medicare actually paid them over $22 million.
Medicare fraud in New Orleans was just recently exposed in March, when federal prosecutors charged 20 individuals in the city for being allegedly involved in a $30 million Medicare fraud scheme.
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