The US Justice Department has announced the 2026 National Health Care Fraud Takedown, which resulted in charges against 455 defendants, including 90 doctors and other licensed medical professionals, for their alleged participation in health care fraud and opioid abuse schemes involving over $6.5 billion in false claims and significant patient harm, including death.
This year’s Takedown represents a new era in federal, state, and international cooperation to combat health care fraud: cases in 56 federal districts and 45 U.S. states and territories, with 50 state Medicaid Fraud Control Units participating, the most in Department history.
In addition, unprecedented international cooperation over the two-week Takedown resulted in the apprehension and return to the United States of the following health care fraudsters: one defendant in Kyrenia in connection with an over $3.7 billion scheme; two defendants in Estonia in connection with a previously charged $10.6 billion scheme; and, in the Philippines, one of FBI’s Most Wanted Fraudsters in connection with a previously-charged $1.2 billion telemedicine fraud scheme.
The Takedown involves the cutting-edge use of data analytics to target the worst actors; the seizure of over $182 million in cash, luxury vehicles, jewelry, and other assets; and full-spectrum accountability for all criminal actors from doctor’s offices to corporate boardrooms.
The coordinated enforcement action involves a whole-of-government approach, including:
•Actions by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to suspend 1,079 providers and revoke billing privileges for 1,403 providers.
•48 Civil Monetary Payment settlements amounting to over $73 million, over 1,400 provider exclusions, and 25 actions by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (“HHS-OIG”) under the Civil Monetary Penalties Law seeking more than $10 billion in payments to the Medicare Trust Fund from payments that CMS caught and suspended before the funds were paid to the fraudulent providers.
•Civil charges against 13 defendants for $14.8 million in health care fraud schemes, as well as civil settlements with 31 defendants totaling $23 million.
•928 administrative cases by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) seeking the revocation of authority to handle and/or prescribe controlled substances since October 1, 2025.
“This year’s National Health Care Fraud Takedown represents the greatest whole-of-government effort to combat health care fraud in our Nation’s history,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. “Under the decisive leadership of President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, and our law enforcement partners, this administration has ushered in a new era of enforcement that will safeguard taxpayer dollars.”
“We are aggressively scaling our offensive against anyone using health care as a front to steal from the American people,” said Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division. “As today’s cases and arrests show, there is no case too big, no scheme too complex, and no hiding place too remote for our relentless fraud-fighting team. Our message is simple: if you put profit over patients, you should expect to be put in prison.”
