From a Montana physician pleading guilty to participating in a $39 million scheme to the Justice Department filing charges against nearly 200 people for $2.8 billion in fraud schemes, here are 10 healthcare billing fraud cases Becker's has reported since June 20:
1. A physician with a St. Louis office and two employees have been accused of illegally prescribing controlled substances and healthcare fraud.
2. An Illinois physician pleaded guilty to billing Medicaid and private insurers for nonexistent services.
3. A podiatrist in Memphis, Tenn., was sentenced to four years in prison for a scheme to defraud Medicare and the state's Medicaid program out of nearly $4 million in foot bath medication reimbursements.
4. The Justice Department filed criminal charges against 193 defendants for their alleged participation in healthcare fraud schemes that involved around $2.75 billion in intended losses and $1.6 billion in actual losses.
5. Home health company VNS Health agreed to pay nearly $1 million to settle allegations that it fraudulently billed Medicaid for Assertive Community Treatment Services that it failed to provide or document.
6. A Whitefish, Mont., physician pleaded guilty to participating in a $39 million Medicare fraud scheme.
7. Two former owners of New York pharmacies who pleaded guilty to an $18 million healthcare fraud scheme were sentenced to 14 collective years in prison.
8. The former owner of a hospice care company was sentenced to 72 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $3.6 million in restitution for her role in a healthcare fraud scheme.
9. Houston-based Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center, Baylor College of Medicine and Surgical Associates of Texas jointly agreed to pay $15 million to resolve claims they billed for concurrent heart surgeries that violated CMS teaching physician and informed consent regulations.
10. A Chicago-based healthcare company and its former owners agreed to pay $2 million to settle allegations that it submitted false claims to Medicare and Medicaid.