On Monday, August 12, 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced a new addition to its regional Medicare Fraud Strike Forces: a Newark/Philadelphia Regional Medicare Strike Force that will target both healthcare fraud and opioid overprescription.[1] The newly-formed Newark/Philadelphia Strike Force joins nine existing regional Medicare Strike Forces, all of which are focused in geographical areas of high healthcare fraud risk: Miami, Florida; Los Angeles, California; Detroit, Michigan; Southern Texas; Southern Louisiana; Brooklyn, New York; Tampa, Florida; Chicago, Illinois; and Dallas, Texas.^[2] The Newark/Philadelphia Strike Force will be supported by the resources of several federal agencies, including the Health Care Fraud Unit of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the District of New Jersey and the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the FBI, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (“OIG”), and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.^[3]

The creation of the regional Newark/Philadelphia Strike Force comes as little surprise as this heavily populated region is home to many major players in the healthcare industry, including pharmaceutical companies and healthcare facilities. Significantly, earlier this year, Maureen Dixon, the Special Agent in Charge of OIG’s Philadelphia Regional Office testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance’s Health Care Subcommittee and highlighted many cases in the New Jersey/Philadelphia region as prototypical examples of patient harm and prescription and treatment fraud and addressed efforts to prevent opioid overutilization and misuse.

Enforcement in the Region: Expect More Enforcement Against Providers and Home Health Care Agencies

The new Newark/Philadelphia Strike Force is expected to usher in quickly a new wave of fraud enforcement to the region. Historically, DOJ’s Strike Forces have targeted provider activity, with enforcement often aimed at clinicians and home health care agencies. The new Strike Force’s dedicated focus on opioid overutilization is in line with the priorities of the District of New Jersey’s U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito, who has made the abuse of opioid prescriptions a target for his district.  In February of this year, the District of New Jersey’s U.S. Attorney’s Office reorganized and announced the formation of an Opioid Abuse Prevention and Enforcement Unit to complement the existing Healthcare and Government Fraud Unit within that Office’s Criminal Division.

Notably, the addition of the new Newark/Philadelphia Strike Force demonstrates DOJ’s continued belief that behavior – both on the provider and the patient sides – can be changed through enforcement. The Strike Forces’ data-driven model of health care enforcement eschews reliance on qui tam filings and whistleblowers for investigative leads in favor of identifying and targeting health care fraud through data analytics.  Nationwide, the Strike Forces have brought a significant increase in healthcare fraud prosecutions since the concept was first introduced in 2007. Indeed, since their creation in 2007, the Strike Forces have been instrumental in obtaining nearly 2,500 indictments related to over $3 billion in fraudulent health care payments.^[4]Most recently, DOJ’s Medicare Strike Forces were in part responsible for the DOJ’s July 2018 health care fraud takedown, the nation’s largest to date, resulting in 601 arrests in connection with over $2 billion of fraudulent billings.^[5] 162 defendants, including 32 doctors, were charged for their roles in prescribing and distributing opioids and other narcotics.^[6]

Impact on Provider Exclusion Actions

It is likely that the number of exclusion actions pursued by OIG will increase in the region because of the Newark/Philadelphia Strike Force. In the intervening year between DOJ’s June 2017 and July 2018 health care fraud takedowns, the OIG issued nearly 600 exclusion notices to individuals and entities whose conduct “contributed to opioid diversion and abuse.”[7] Among those issued exclusion notices were 67 doctors, 402 nurses, and 40 pharmacy services.^[8]

Opioid Overutilization Enforcement

The Newark/Philadelphia Strike Force is the first of its kind to have a specific focus on targeting opioid overutilization. Identifying and targeting the opioid epidemic is a top priority of both DOJ and the OIG; according to Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, CDC data found that over 40 percent of all U.S. opioid overdose deaths involved a prescription opioid in 2016.^[9][10] A 2018 OIG report on opioid abuse in the Medicare Part D program found that about 460,000 beneficiaries received high amounts of opioids in 2017, and about 71,000 beneficiaries are at serious risk of opioid misuse or overdose.^[11]

Both the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and the District of New Jersey have developed novel, cutting-edge healthcare fraud cases time and time again over the past decade.  The addition of expertise and resources provided by the new Strike Force in these two districts demonstrate a clear intent to continue this trend. However, it remains to be seen if the new Strike Force and its opioid focus will divert resource away from other more long-term, complex investigations these Districts have traditionally concentrated on.

_{[1] https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/assistant-attorney-general-benczkowski-announces-newarkphiladelphia-medicare-fraud-strike}

_{[2] https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/assistant-attorney-general-benczkowski-announces-newarkphiladelphia-medicare-fraud-strike}

_{[3] Id.}

_{[4] https://oig.hhs.gov/fraud/strike-force/}

_{[5] https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/national-health-care-fraud-takedown-results-charges-against-601-individuals-responsible-over}

_{[6] https://www.fda.gov/ICECI/CriminalInvestigations/ucm612183.htm; https://oig.hhs.gov/newsroom/media-materials/2018/takedown/2018HealthCareTakedown_FactSheet.pdf; https://www.law360.com/articles/1064720/doj-s-health-care-enforcement-initiative-is-still-going-strong.}

_{[7] https://oig.hhs.gov/newsroom/media-materials/2018/takedown/2018HealthCareTakedown_FactSheet.pdf}

_{[8] Id.}

_{[9] https://oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-02-18-00220.pdf; https://oig.hhs.gov/reports-and-publications/featured-topics/opioids/}

_{[10] https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/assistant-attorney-general-benczkowski-announces-newarkphiladelphia-medicare-fraud-strike}

_{[11] https://oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-02-18-00220.pdf}