U.S. Attorney Acosta added, "Eighteen months ago, the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of Florida implemented a health care fraud task force to fight fraud and abuse in our community. Our involvement in today's multi-agency anti-fraud effort is a critical part of our continuing resolve to safeguard the integrity of the Medicare program by stopping fraud and abuse on a real-time basis, particularly in cases of durable medical equipment and infusion therapy frauds."

"CMS is taking innovative and aggressive approaches to address the fraud that has been occurring in South Florida," said Leslie V. Norwalk, Esq., Acting Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. "These advances allow CMS to work more effectively with beneficiaries. Just as significant, our efforts facilitate law enforcement's ability to identify more quickly those providers who seek to harm the Medicare program and to prevent them from enrolling or to terminate their participation in Medicare."


FBI Special Agent in Charge Jonathan I. Solomon stated, "The stability and strength of the Medicare system is imperative if this valuable program is to continue to exist for the benefit of future generations. The Strike Force will help us preserve the integrity of the Medicare program through the speedy prosecution of those who commit fraud. With our federal and local law enforcement partners, we will continue to combat fraud on the Medicare program."

Melody Jackson, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, Atlanta Regional Office, stated, "The Medicare Fraud Strike Force is a cooperative and proactive law enforcement effort to address fraud, waste and abuse in South Florida. My office is committed to serving the public in combating this fraud."

On the morning of May 8, 2007, federal agents arrested 24 people associated with pharmaceutical frauds. The defendants charged participated in schemes to bill Medicare for expensive inhalation medications. They are alleged to have provided pharmacists fraudulent prescriptions for compounded aerosols. These are expensive, custom-made medications, which are supposed to be used only when necessary to treat particularized medical needs. Here, they were not used to treat any patients. In fact, the compounding of medication was done solely to defraud Medicare, and one of the men mixing the medications was not a licensed pharmacist, but rather an air-conditioner repairman. When the medicines were prepared, they were typically thrown in the garbage. The fraudulent prescriptions in these cases totaled more than $14 million.

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