U.S. charges more than 600 people in health-care fraud crackdown

Oxycodone pills.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

On Thursday, the Department of Justice announced it has charged 601 people, including 162 doctors, with health-care fraud, with some allegedly contributing to the country's opioid crisis by unlawfully distributing prescription painkillers.

This was not one case, but rather dozens of unrelated prosecutions, the Justice Department said. Many of the cases involved people fraudulently billing Medicare and Medicaid and private insurers for unnecessary prescription drugs, resulting in more than $2 billion in losses, Reuters reports.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.