Feds Break Up $1.2 Billion Medicare Scam That Peddled Unneeded Braces to Seniors

The U.S. Department of Justice has arrested and charged 24 individuals across the United States for targeting seniors with a scam involving back, shoulder, wrist, and knee braces, reports CBS News . Those charged include doctors, owners of call centers, telemedicine firms, and medical equipment companies. Medicare's anti-fraud unit announced it is taking action against 130 medical equipment companies implicated in the scam, who billed the program a total of $1.7 billion. Federal officials said the telemarketers would reach out to older Americans offering "free" orthopedic braces, also promoted through TV and radio ads; beneficiaries who expressed interest would be connected to call centers based in the Philippines and Latin America. The call centers would confirm the victims' Medicare coverage and transfer them to telemedicine companies for consultations with physicians, who would write prescriptions for braces, regardless of whether the victims needed them or not. The call centers would collect prescriptions and sell them to medical equipment companies, which would send the braces to the victims and bill Medicare. The equipment companies would receive $500 to $900 per brace from Medicare and pay kickbacks of nearly $300 per brace. "The breadth of this nationwide conspiracy should be frightening to all who rely on some form of healthcare," declared Don Fort with the Internal Revenue Service.