25 Charged In Fraud Involving Home Care In DC

Twenty-five people were charged Thursday with obtaining at least $75 million in fraudulent Medicaid payments from the District of Columbia government, a series of cases that federal prosecutors said added up to the largest health-care fraud in the city's history.

The alleged schemes, which prosecutors said were similar but not necessarily part of a unified conspiracy, involved bogus claims for home care services, a category of Medicaid claim that has grown dramatically in the city over the past 8 years. The uptick in billings for home care -- from $40 million in 2006 to $280 million last year -- was part of what tipped off authorities to illegal activity, U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen said.

"We concluded that much of the growth was due to aggressive networks of fraudsters paying kickbacks to beneficiaries to manufacture false claims for nonexistent services," Machen said, later adding: "Medicaid fraud in the District of Columbia is at epidemic levels."
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