Grab and Keel

You go! Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s announcement about Medicare fraud prosecutions isn’t getting the play accorded to more “hot topic” issues, but it’s an important step in doing two things – actually getting fraud out of the Medicare system; and, two dispelling the GOP inference that fraud in social and health care systems is something done by imaginary welfare queens and ne’er do wells.

Who’s getting prosecuted?

U.S. law enforcement officials have charged 301 suspects with trying to defraud Medicare and other federal insurance programs in 2016, marking the “largest takedown” involving health care fraud allegations, the Justice Department said on Wednesday.

The national sweep resulted in charges against doctors, nurses, pharmacists and physical therapists accused of fraud that cost the government $900 million, the department said. The cases involved an array of charges, including conspiracy to commit health care fraud, money laundering and violations of an anti-kickback law. [