The Justice Department on Tuesday announced criminal charges against 455 people as part of a two-week healthcare fraud crackdown that officials say involved more than $6.5 billion in false claims submitted to insurers.

Among those charged are 13 in North Texas, and a nurse practitioner in the state is accused of billing Medicaid for medically unnecessary wound-care procedures and using the proceeds for fancy jewelry and luxury cars; a mental health company owner who prosecutors say exploited the homeless by billing for crisis stabilization services they did not need; and a hospice owner alleged to have paid kickbacks to a funeral home employee for information about Medicare beneficiaries.

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A heart doctor is charged in Florida in an $89 million healthcare fraud scheme, accused of billing insurers for medically unnecessary cardiovascular screening tests for college student-athletes and then rubber-stamping the results as normal without reviewing them.

Jason Finkelstein, 53, faces charges in Florida of healthcare fraud and conspiracy in what prosecutors describe as a yearslong scheme that preyed on the fears of athletes that they could die on playing fields or courts of sudden cardiac arrest.


Athletes with no preexisting conditions who were concerned about being cleared to compete were administered tests they did not need and, in one case, a patient whose results were falsely certified as normal later died after his significant heart problems were undetected, the indictment says.

Healthcare fraud has been a long-running Justice Department priority and news conferences announcing mass roundups and crackdowns have been common occurrences across the years. The Trump administration has sought to emphasize fraud enforcement over the last year, including by appointing a new assistant attorney general, Colin McDonald, to oversee healthcare fraud prosecutions at the Justice Department, which operates multiple specialized task forces.

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