by bvernia | December 16th, 2009
On December 15, DOJ announced that it was expanding its nearly three-year-old Medicare Strike Force program. The strike force, which is a centerpiece of the Obama administration’s Health Care Fraud Prevention & Enforcement Action Team (HEAT) program announced in May, 2009, has been operating in Miami-Dade County, Los Angeles, Houston, and Detroit, with numerous indictments and convictions in those jurisdictions. DOJ’s announcement stated:
The joint DOJ-HHS Medicare Fraud Strike Force is a multi-agency team of federal, state and local investigators designed to combat Medicare fraud through the use of Medicare data analysis techniques and an increased focus on community policing. Strike Force teams are operating in seven cities in the United States: Miami, Los Angeles, Detroit, Houston, Brooklyn, Tampa and Baton Rouge.
DOJ simultaneously announced developments in the strike force jurisdictions, including the unsealing of five indictments in Miami, Detroit and Brooklyn, along with the arrests of twenty-five persons in Miami, four in Detroit and one in Brooklyn, and the execution of four search warrants at businesses and homes in Coconut Creek, Florida, Miami and Brooklyn.
