On Thursday, July 20, 2017, acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, Joel R. Levin, announced his office is increasing its attention on healthcare through a new Health Care Fraud Unit focused on prosecuting criminal healthcare fraud violations. Assistant U.S. Attorney Heather McShain will lead the team of five prosecutors, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Chahn Lee will serve as the unit's Senior Counsel. The new unit is the latest example of the Department of Justice's focus on healthcare nationwide. It comes on the heels of last week's announcement that the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General reported it charged over 400 defendants for false billing schemes totaling $1.3 billion - the largest healthcare fraud enforcement action in history. Over the past ten years, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force has charged more than 3,500 individuals for allegedly defrauding Medicare for more than $12.5 billion.  

These prosecutions have targeted all of those involved in the healthcare industry including doctors, nurses, pharmacists, hospitals and hospital management, home-health care companies, skilled nursing facilities and therapy providers.  And, a wide range of healthcare fraud issues have been involved from upcoding services, billing for services not performed, performing unnecessary services and violations of the Anti-Kickback Act.