NEWARK, N.J. – Assistant Attorney General Brian A.
Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division today announced the
formation of the Newark/Philadelphia Regional Medicare Fraud Strike Force
(Regional Strike Force), a joint law enforcement effort that brings together
the resources and expertise of the Health Care Fraud Unit in the Justice
Department’s Criminal Division’s Fraud Section (HCF Unit), the U.S. Attorney’s
Offices for the District of New Jersey and the Eastern District of
Pennsylvania, as well as law enforcement partners at the FBI, U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG) and U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
Assistant Attorney General Benczkowski was joined in the
announcement by U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito for the District of New Jersey;
U.S. Attorney William M. McSwain for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania;
Assistant Director Robert Johnson of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division;
Deputy Inspector General Gary Cantrell of the Department of Health and Human
Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) and Assistant Administrator John
Martin of the DEA.
“The devastation the opioid epidemic is inflicting on
communities across the country and here in the Mid-Atlantic region is
staggering—and health care fraud has played a role in feeding that epidemic,”
said Assistant Attorney General Benczkowski.
“It is estimated that each year tens of billions of dollars in American
taxpayer money are lost to fraud, waste, abuse and improper payments. According
to the CDC, in 2016, more than 40 percent of all U.S. opioid overdose deaths
involved a prescription opioid. Our Medicare Fraud Strike Forces, which we have
now expanded into Newark and Philadelphia, constitute one of our most important
and effective means for containing these threats to the American people.”
“New Jersey is home to some of the best healthcare
facilities and most successful pharmaceutical companies in the country,” U.S.
Attorney Carpenito said. “Unfortunately,
that also means that we offer substantial targets for those who would try to
defraud the health care system or try to profit from the misery of people
battling addiction to opioids. We’ve already developed one robust unit to go
after these criminals, the Healthcare & Government Fraud Unit, and I added
another, the Opioids Unit, in February upon rejoining the office as U.S.
Attorney. The arrival of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force in our District will
serve as an additional force-multiplier and enable us to do even more of these
cases, further protecting the citizens of New Jersey from this kind of fraud
and abuse.”
“Medicare fraud costs our government billions of dollars,”
Special Agent in Charge Gregory W. Ehrie of the Newark FBI Field Office said.
“The Medicare Strike Force will aggressively target waste, fraud and abuse in
federal health care programs ameliorating the intolerable burden on the
taxpayer and Health Care System.”
“The proven-effective Strike Force model combining
specialized investigators and prosecutors will no doubt be highly successful in
the ongoing fight against health care fraud in the District of New Jersey,”
said Scott J. Lampert, Special Agent in Charge for the Office of Inspector
General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “We look forward
to working closely with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Justice Department’s
Criminal Division, FBI, DEA, and other law enforcement partners to protect
taxpayer-funded federal health care programs and the millions who rely on those
benefits.”
“The Newark/Philadelphia Regional Medicare Fraud Strike
Force is a great opportunity for collaboration with our partners to share vital
information,” Valerie A. Nickerson, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug
Enforcement Administration’s New Jersey Division said. “This Strike Force can
be an effective tool to combat these crimes by combining the resources of the
agencies that are responsible for detecting, enforcing and prosecuting
violations of these regulations and laws.”
Prior to this announcement, the HCF Unit operated Medicare
Fraud Strike Force’s in 10 cities across the United States including Miami,
Florida; Los Angeles, California; Detroit, Michigan; Houston, Texas; Brooklyn,
New York; Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Louisiana; Tampa, Florida; Chicago,
Illinois; and Dallas, Texas, along with a Corporate Strike Force located in
Washington, D.C. The Strike Forces
represent a partnership between the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney’s Offices,
the FBI and HHS-OIG.
The Regional Strike Force will be made up of prosecutors and
data analysts with the HCF Unit, prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Offices
for the District of New Jersey and Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and
special agents with the FBI, HHS-OIG and DEA.
In addition, the Regional Strike Force will work closely with other
various federal law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. Postal Inspection
Service and IRS Criminal Investigation, and State Medicaid Fraud Control
Units. The Strike Force will focus its
efforts on aggressively investigating and prosecuting cases involving fraud,
waste, and abuse within our federal health care programs, and cases involving
illegal prescribing and distribution of opioids and other dangerous
narcotics.
In June, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and HHS Secretary
Alex M. Azar III noted the success of the Strike Force model while announcing
the largest ever health care fraud enforcement action involving 601 charged
defendants across 58 federal districts, including 165 doctors, nurses and other
licensed medical professionals, for their alleged participation in health care
fraud schemes involving more than $2 billion in false billings. Of those charged, 162 defendants, including
76 doctors, were charged for their roles in prescribing and distributing
opioids and other dangerous narcotics. More information can be obtained at
https://www.justice.gov/opa/documents-and-resources-june-28-2018.
The Strike Force operations are part of a joint initiative
between the Department of Justice and HHS to focus their efforts to prevent and
deter fraud and enforce current anti-fraud laws around the country. Since its inception in March 2007, the
prosecutors in the 10 Medicare Fraud Strike Force locations have charged over
3,700 defendants who collectively have falsely billed the Medicare program for
over $14 billion.
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