Remarks As Prepared for Delivery by Attorney General Eric Holder at the Heat Press...

Remarks As Prepared for Delivery by Attorney General Eric Holder at the Heat
Press Conference on Detroit Takedown

WASHINGTON, June 24 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following are remarks as
prepared for delivery by Attorney General Eric Holder at the Heat Press
Conference on Detroit Takedown:

Good afternoon and thank you for being here. I'm joined here today by my
colleagues, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen
Sebelius and FBI Director Robert Mueller.

Just a few weeks ago, Secretary Sebelius and I announced an unprecedented,
united effort by the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services to
combat healthcare waste, fraud, and abuse by launching the Healthcare Fraud
Prevention & Enforcement Action Team or HEAT. The HEAT Task Force, which is
co-chaired by Deputy Attorney General David Ogden and HHS Deputy Secretary
Bill Corr, is already bringing to bear the tools and resources of both of our
agencies to attack this critical problem.

As part of the HEAT initiative, we announced the expansion of our Medicare
Fraud Strike Force operations from South Florida and Los Angeles to Detroit
and Houston.

Today, we are here to announce that our combined efforts to shut down Medicare
fraud schemes and to stop unscrupulous people from defrauding the American
taxpayers have already yielded important results.

This morning, indictments charging 53 people with Medicare fraud-related
crimes have been unsealed in Detroit. Agents from the FBI and the HHS
Inspector General's Office have begun arresting these defendants in Detroit,
Miami, and other parts of the country. The individuals indicted today include
16 company owners and executives, as well as 4 doctors, 8 medical personnel, 6
employees and 19 patient-beneficiaries. Combined, they are accused of
conspiring to submit more than $50 million in false claims to the Medicare
program.

In one case it is alleged that defendants created a healthcare company,
submitted paperwork to obtain required Medicare provider numbers, hired
recruiters, and gave them cash to recruit patients to participate in the
scheme. It is further alleged that they hired staff, such as medical billers
and assistants, to give the appearance of legitimacy, and then paid the
patients cash kickbacks to sign forms saying they had received treatments that
in fact were medically unnecessary and, oftentimes, were never provided.

The vast majority of doctors, patients, and medical companies do the right
thing and work with the Medicare program to provide access to medical
services. I just want to say to those of you who work diligently and ethically
to provide medical care through the Medicare program, we will work with you to
root out the few who corrupt the system and taint the good reputations of
health professionals everywhere.

The Medicare Fraud Strike Forces now operating in South Florida, Los Angeles,
Detroit, and Houston are perfect examples of how federal, state, and local law
enforcement working together can strike back against crime in our communities.
These strike forces analyze Medicare data to identify hot spots of unexplained
high-billing levels in concentrated areas. Teams of federal, state, and local
investigators then work together to investigate fraudulent activity, and where
appropriate, to bring criminal and civil cases against the most serious
perpetrators. Our goal is to bring these cases as quickly and responsibly as
possible once the fraud is identified to assure that viral fraud schemes do
not spread between regions within our country.

In fact, 10 of the defendants named in the indictments unsealed today are
alleged to have brought their fraud schemes from Miami to Detroit. Strike
force operations in Miami have seen instances of fraud spread quickly through
communities in that area. After we arrested and charged criminals in Miami,
their cohorts simply moved their schemes to Detroit. It is this very type of
cross-regional spread that the expansion of Strike Force operations is
designed to combat.

Now, we are aware that even with today's charges and arrests, there are those
out there continuing to defraud the Medicare program. That is why Secretary
Sebelius and I are personally committed to the HEAT initiative, a multi-phase
enforcement and regulatory effort to prevent, deter, and prosecute Healthcare
fraud and recover taxpayer funds. As demonstrated by today's charges and
arrests, we will strike back against those whose fraudulent schemes not only
undermine a program upon which 45 million aged and disabled Americans depend,
but which also contribute directly to rising health care costs that all
Americans must bear.

Finally, I would like to thank the agents and investigators from the FBI and
HHS's Office of the Inspector General, as well as the prosecutors from the
Justice Department's Criminal Division and the U.S. Attorney's Office in
Detroit, who have worked tirelessly - and are continuing to work as we speak -
to bring these criminals to justice. Through their dedication and coordinated
efforts, we are making our healthcare system stronger and more secure.

I would now like to turn it over to Secretary Sebelius.

SOURCE U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs, +1-202-514-2007, TDD
+1-202-514-1888