Justice Department announces hundreds of charges in multi-billion-dollar
healthcare fraud crackdown
[June 24, 2026]
By ERIC TUCKER
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department announced criminal charges
Tuesday against 455 people as part of a two-week healthcare fraud
crackdown that officials say involved more than $6.5 billion in false
claims submitted to insurers.
Among those charged is a nurse practitioner accused in Texas of billing
Medicare for medically unnecessary wound-care procedures and using the
proceeds for fancy jewelry and luxury cars; a mental health company
owner who prosecutors say targeted the homeless by billing for crisis
stabilization services they did not receive; and a hospice owner alleged
to have paid kickbacks to a funeral home employee for information about
deceased Medicare beneficiaries.
A heart doctor, meanwhile, is charged in Florida in an $89 million
healthcare fraud scheme, accused of billing insurers for medically
unnecessary cardiovascular screening tests for college student-athletes
and then rubber-stamping the results as normal without personally
reviewing them.
The doctor, Jason Finkelstein, 53, faces charges of healthcare fraud and
conspiracy in what prosecutors describe as a yearslong scheme that
preyed on the fears of athletes that they could die on playing fields or
courts of sudden cardiac arrest. Athletes with no preexisting conditions
who were concerned about being cleared to compete were administered
tests they did not need and, in one case, a patient whose results were
falsely certified as normal later died after his significant heart
problems were undetected, the indictment says.
Healthcare fraud has been a long-running Justice Department priority and
news conferences announcing roundups and crackdowns have been common
occurrences across the years. The Trump administration has made a point
of emphasizing enforcement over the last year, including through the
appointment of a new assistant attorney general, Colin McDonald, to help
oversee healthcare fraud prosecutions at a Justice Department that
operates multiple specialized task forces.
“Today’s cases allege more than the theft of taxpayer dollars. Many
allege the theft of human dignity,” McDonald said at a news conference
announcing this year's crackdown, which covers cases charged or unsealed
since June 8. “Our sick, needy and elderly placing their faith in the
gift of medicine were neglected, ignored and used for personal profit,”
The department says Finkelstein’s case, with allegations not only of
unrendered services but also poor medical performance that put patients
at risk, represents the type of sophisticated scheme prosecutors are
striving to disrupt.
A lawyer for Finkelstein, a Texas-based doctor who pleaded not guilty
during a court appearance in Florida on Monday, did not return messages
seeking comment.
The alleged fraud ran between 2019 and the end of last year and,
prosecutors say, involved Finkelstein and a pair of unidentified
co-conspirators at a Florida-based cardiovascular testing and treatment
practice where he served as medical director
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The U.S. Department of Justice logo is seen on a podium before a
news conference, May 4, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree
Nikhinson, File)
 Officials say the scheme had
multiple components, with Finkelstein and his company using what the
indictment says were deceptive marketing tactics to encourage and
offer free heart screens for students who did not need them and then
certifying the results as normal without any review.
The indictment quotes Finkelstein as telling an unnamed
co-conspirator with whom he worked that “(t)hese kids could be high
risk ...(o)ne of them drops dead on a field, they’re coming after
both of us.”
Finkelstein's co-conspirators blasted out emails to athletic
trainers at colleges and universities stating that the tests being
offered could identify any life-threatening condition that could
prevent the students from playing, and also offered kickbacks and
other inducements to school officials to refer potential patients
for testing, according to the indictment.
Insurance companies do not cover blanket cardiovascular testing but
instead require a prior finding of a medical necessity. To avert
that roadblock, prosecutors say, Finkelstein submitted to insurers
phony diagnoses of conditions, such as elevated blood pressure and
hypertension, that the athletes did not actually have.
His company relied on sonographers who lacked the requisite
credentials to travel to college campuses to perform the tests, and
because Finkelstein was licensed in the 48 contiguous states, he and
his company were able to submit claims for patients across the
country, the indictment says.
At the same time, prosecutors say, Finkelstein would certify cardiac
test results as being normal without actually reviewing them.
In one instance in 2024, according to the indictment, he signed off
on approximately 63 test result images of one patient just 11
seconds after accessing them. The test results actually revealed a
significantly enlarged heart and the teenage patient later died on
the basketball court, officials said.
“There is no way they could miss that, except they didn’t care,”
said Mehmet Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon by training and head of the
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. “This is not a diagnostic
company. It’s a predatory scheme dressed up in medical clothing and
we’re going to treat it as such.”
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