Attorney General Jeff Sessions
announced Thursday that federal prosecutors have charged more
than 400 people in taking part in medical fraud and opioid scams
that totaled $1.3 billion in fraudulent billing.
Sessions said that 412 individuals
will be prosecuted by his office in what he called the ‘largest
health care fraud takedown operation in American history' during
a press conference in Washington.
Sessions noted that the case
involves doctors, nurses and pharmacists that ‘have chosen to
violate their oaths and put greed ahead of their patients.'
Among those charged are six
Michigan doctors accused of a scheme to prescribe unnecessary
opioids. A Florida rehab facility is alleged to have recruited
addicts with gift cards and visits to strip clubs, leading to
$58 million in false treatments and tests.
Officials said those charged in
the schemes include more than 120 people involved in illegally
prescribing and distributing narcotic painkillers.
Such prescription opioids are
behind the deadliest drug overdose epidemic in US history.
More than 52,000 Americans died of
overdoses in 2015 – a record – and experts believe the numbers
have continued to rise.
‘In some cases, we had addicts
packed into standing-room-only waiting rooms waiting for these
prescriptions,' acting FBI director Andrew McCabe said. ‘They
are a death sentence, plain and simple.'
HOW DO OPIOID SCAMS
WORK?
The opioid
crisis – which led to the deaths of 59,000 Americans in 2016
– was spearheaded by pharmaceutical companies that
manufacture highly addictive drugs.
These companies
managed to convince physicians and other pharmacists that
they had created drugs – such as Oxycontin and Vicodin –
which could treat pain but were not addictive. These doctors
then overprescribed the medications to the poor and elderly
and billed the federal government.
They targeted
hospitals in disadvantages areas, perhaps on the hope that
the less educated were more likely to take their doctor's
word for it. According to the Center for Disease Control,
whites earning between $20,000 and $50,000 were the most
affected.
They also
conducted self-seeking research projects in order to
distribute inaccurate data to doctors and researchers.
These companies
didn't stop there. The masterminds paid representatives who
helped them increase their sales. In West Virginia alone,
they sold 780,000,000 hydrocodone and oxycodone pills
between 2007 and 2012.
One of such
companies was Purdue, a company that has earned $35 billion
dollars from Oxycontin alone. The pharmaceutical company's
owners, the Sackler family, made a net worth of $14 billion
at the end of 2015.
While there are
rules which require drug distributors and pharmacists to
report abnormal orders of controlled medications, regulators
didn't detect this loophole in their system.
In fact, this
opioid scam, which has been in effect for at least ten
years, didn't come to light until disadvantaged and middle
class whites began dying in their numbers.
Nearly 300 health care providers
are being suspended or banned from participating in federal
health care programs, Sessions said.
‘They seem oblivious to the
disastrous consequences of their greed. Their actions not only
enrich themselves, often at the expense of taxpayers, but also
feed addictions and cause addictions to start,' Sessions said.
Health care fraud sweeps like
Thursday's happen each year across the country, but law
enforcement officials continue to grapple over the best way to
fight the problem.
The people charged were illegally
billing Medicare, Medicaid and the health insurance program that
serves members of the armed forces, retired service members and
their families, the Justice Department said.
The allegations include claims
that those charged billed the programs for unnecessary drugs
that were never purchased or given to the patients.
‘Why is it they have
lost hope?': How the opioid crisis became rampant in America
The opioid crisis in
America most likely began in the 1990s, a time when about a
100 million people – a third of America's population – were
suffering from chronic pain.
The federal
government and drug companies thus began increasing the
production of painkillers.
But as these drugs
increased in quantity, so did the potency. About one in six
drugs, by 2002, were more powerful than morphine.
There was an
increased demand of these highly addictive drugs as patients
began to use them recreationally to get a high. Doctors
prescribed more, and for those who couldn't access the
painkillers in hospitals, they looked elsewhere – the
streets.
Drug cartels flooded
to America to meet the rising demand, often selling heroin,
an illegal opioid which was more powerful and cheaper. The
states most affected were Maryland, Florida, Pennsylvania
and Maine.
‘There has to be an
answer to why they are becoming addicted to a greater
degree,' Health and Human Services secretary, Tom Price,
said. ‘Why is it they have lost hope? What is going on in
our society?'
Close to 66,000 died
last year from drug overdoses while 33,000 died in 2015 –
the largest yearly jump in the US.
http://www.healthfreedoms.org/largest-medical-fraud-takedown-in-american-history-more-than-400-doctors-nurses-and-pharmacists-are-arrested-for-heathcare-and-opioid-scams-worth-1-3bn-in-false-billing/