nt of Health and Human Services Office ofInspector General's for the Dallas region said fraudulent charges in North Texas engaged in a  Wide range of criminal conduct, including illegal kickbacks, medically unnecessary genetic testing, unnecessary durable medical equipment, billing over-the-counter COVID-19 test kits to deceased individuals andfraudulent EEG testing in hospice fraud schemes that siphoned money from dying patients who actually need the service. 

Meadows explained that these cases are part of a nationwide effort to ensure Tricare, the health care program for service members, is not exploited.

 Today's takedown shines a bright light on fraudulent schemes that have targeted Tricare for years. These are not victimless crimes, said Meadows.  They threaten medical readiness. They undermine the trust in our military health care system, and they divert funds intended for legitimate care. 

The U.S. Justice Department announced 455 charges nationwide on Tuesday, totaling more than $6.5 billion in alleged fraud.

The release from the DOJ says the takedown also involved international efforts, resulting in the apprehension of fugitives abroad, a defendant in Kyrenia connected to a more than $3.7 billion scheme, two defendants in Estonia previously charged in a $10.6 billion scheme, and in the Philippines, one person was arrested in connection with a previously-charged $1.2 billion telemedicine fraud scheme.

 We are aggressively scaling our offensive against anyone using health care as a front to steal from the American people,  said Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department's National Fraud Enforcement Division.  As today's cases and arrests show, there is no case too big, no scheme too complex, and no hiding place too remote for our relentless fraud-fighting team. Our message is simple: if you put profit over patients, you should expect to be put in prison.