Feds Shut Down $1.2 Billion <br />Medicare Fraud Scheme The Department of Justice <br />has charged 24 people in <br />the scheme to defraud Medicare. It involved doctors, <br />telemedicine and durable <br />medical equipment (DME) companies. Matthew Line, IRS special agent, via NPR Call centers in the <br />Philippines and Latin America <br />"up-sold" Medicare beneficiaries <br />on medical braces they didn't need. Bribes were then <br />paid to telemedicine <br />companies by the call centers. The telemedicine companies <br />paid doctors to write orders <br />for the equipment. The call centers then <br />sold the bogus orders to <br />DME companies while billing Medicare. The investigation and take <br />down of the scheme included the <br />FBI, the IRS and 17 US attorneys' offices.
