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Examples of Medicare Fraud

The patterns the DOJ prosecutes most often.

Medicare and Medicaid fraud is one of the largest sources of False Claims Act recoveries. If you've seen any of these patterns, you may have a case.

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The most common patterns

  • Billing for services that were never performed
  • Upcoding — billing for a more expensive procedure than what was actually done
  • Kickbacks — payments or gifts to doctors in exchange for prescriptions, referrals, or device usage
  • Medically unnecessary procedures — surgeries, tests, or treatments billed without clinical justification
  • Telehealth fraud — billing for virtual visits that never happened or lasted seconds
  • Billing for services under a higher-paid provider's credentials when a lower-paid staffer did the work
  • Waiving patient copays as an inducement (a form of kickback)
  • Hospice or home health fraud — enrolling patients who don't meet medical eligibility

Frequently asked questions

Is upcoding really fraud?
Yes — when it's intentional. Billing for a higher level of service than what was delivered is a textbook FCA violation, and upcoding schemes have produced some of the largest healthcare fraud settlements on record.
Is telehealth fraud growing?
Significantly. Since 2020, telehealth fraud has become one of the fastest-growing categories of healthcare FCA cases — including phantom visits, fake prescriptions, and fraudulent DME orders tied to brief or nonexistent consults.

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