Posted on Monday, July 7, 2025
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by Alan Jamison
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The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the largest health care fraud takedown in the nation’s history last week, totaling more than $14.6 billion. The agency worked with state and federal law enforcement agencies throughout the country to carry out the successful operation.
The DOJ stated that the nationwide takedown more than doubled the prior record of $6 billion. The operation resulted in criminal charges against 324 defendants, including “96 doctors, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, and other licensed medical professionals.” Those charged were allegedly involved in several different health care fraud schemes.
The federal government seized $245 million in “cash, luxury vehicles, cryptocurrency, and other assets as part of the coordinated enforcement efforts.” The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) additionally stopped $4 billion from being paid as part of false or fraudulent claims as well as revoking the billing privileges of 205 providers.
Attorney General Pam Bondi praised the operation as protecting America’s “most vulnerable citizens.”
“This record-setting Health Care Fraud Takedown delivers justice to criminal actors who prey upon our most vulnerable citizens and steal from hardworking American taxpayers,” Bondi said. “Make no mistake – this administration will not tolerate criminals who line their pockets with taxpayer dollars while endangering the health and safety of our communities.”
The takedown was a whole-of-government approach, seeing the DOJ work with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). DOJ explained that the cases are being “prosecuted by Health Care Fraud Strike Force teams from the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, 50 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices nationwide, and 12 State Attorneys General Offices.”
HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy said that the takedown was part of his agency’s effort to eliminate health care fraud.
“As part of making healthcare accessible and affordable to all Americans, HHS will aggressively work with our law enforcement partners to eliminate the pervasive healthcare fraud that bedeviled this agency under the former administration and drove up costs,” he said.
The operation’s report included details on the numerous health care fraud schemes that were part of the takedown. There were 29 defendants who were charged with being involved in transnational organizations that allegedly submitted over $12 billion in fraudulent claims to American health insurance programs.
In one case, the DOJ launched “Operation Gold Rush” to investigate an organization that “bought dozens of medical supply companies” in the United States and then submitted $10.6 billion in fraudulent health care claims to Medicare for “urinary catheters and other durable medical equipment by exploiting the stolen identities of over one million Americans.”
In a combined 58 cases, the DOJ charged 74 defendants, including 44 licensed medical professionals, for “illegal diversion of over 15 million pills of prescription opioids and other controlled substances.” One specific case saw five defendants involved with a Texas pharmacy charged “with the unlawful distribution of over 3 million opioid pills.”
The department also announced that it would work with the HHS, FBI, and other federal agencies to create a “Health Care Fraud Data Fusion Center” that would bring experts together to “leverage cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and advanced analytics” in an effort to detect health care fraud schemes in the future.
Alan Jamison is the pen name of a political writer with extensive experience writing for several notable politicians and news outlets.
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