DOJ Launches West Coast Strike Force Targeting Health Care Fraud

The Justice Department has created a West Coast Health Care Fraud Strike Force targeting health care fraud in Arizona, Nevada, and the San Francisco area in Northern California.

The multi-district enforcement effort will bring together the department’s Health Care Fraud Section with U.S. Attorney’s Offices in the District of Arizona, District of Nevada, and Northern District of California, the Justice Department announced April 30.

The department said the strike force model has been used nationally to prosecute more than 6,200 defendants accused of collectively billing federal health care programs and private insurers more than $45 billion.

Officials said the new West Coast effort is driven by data showing a significant increase in health care fraud across the three districts, including technology-driven schemes in Silicon Valley and fraud operations migrating to Arizona and Nevada.

“Silicon Valley has become ground zero for technology-driven health care fraud schemes that seek to cheat taxpayer-funded programs like Medicare,” said Craig Missakian, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California, in a statement. “The Health Care Strike Force announced today is a powerful partnership that brings together the resources and expertise needed to detect and dismantle even the most sophisticated fraud schemes.”

A federal jury convicted Ruthia He, founder of digital health company Done, and its president, David Brody, for a years-long scheme to illegally distribute Adderall online and commit health care fraud. Their technology company provided easy access to more than 40 million pills of Adderall and other stimulants in exchange for a monthly subscription fee, according to the DOJ.

Prosecutors said the pair used deceptive advertising and limited medical oversight, and paid providers to issue prescriptions, generating over $100 million in fraudulent payments. The scheme led to addiction and patient harm, while insurers paid more than $14 million in false claims.

President Donald Trump created the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud in March. Trump’s order stated the federal task force should coordinate a comprehensive national strategy to stop fraud, waste, and abuse across Federal benefit programs, including housing, food, medical care, and cash assistance.

The DOJ also announced the creation of its Fraud Division on April 7.

“The Fraud Division is committed to bringing that same relentless, data-driven prosecutorial force to bear across every corner of this region, making unmistakably clear that no scheme is too sophisticated, no network too large or small, and no fraudster too distant to escape federal accountability,” said Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald of the Justice Department’s Fraud Division in a statement.