DOJ Charges 455 in 2026 Health Care Fraud Takedown Alleging $6.5 Billion in False Claims

The Department of Justice charged 455 defendants last month in its 2026 National Health Care Fraud Takedown, alleging $6.5 billion in false claims across 56 federal judicial districts. The number of defendants was nearly 40 percent higher than in the prior year. The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing this week on health-care fraud.

State Medicaid directors from California, Minnesota, New York, and Ohio testified at the hearing. Earlier this year a field investigation examined home-healthcare agencies in Columbus, Ohio, where one agency had received approximately $11.1 million in Medicaid payments since 2018.

Its website used stock photographs and its contact email was a Gmail address, according to the investigation described in The Hill.

The House Oversight Task Force estimated $1.2 billion in losses in Ohio's personal care services program. A March 2025 Inspector General report found that 36 percent of convictions reported by state Medicaid Fraud Control Units in fiscal year 2024 involved personal care services.

Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a Medicaid integrity initiative in Florida that includes enhanced provider screening, an enrollment moratorium in high-risk categories, and statewide revalidation of all active Medicaid providers.

SentiLink provides identity-verification services to state Medicaid programs, including Florida's initiative. David Maimon, head of Fraud Insights at SentiLink and director of the Evidence-Based Cybersecurity Research Group at Georgia State University, said billing volume serves as a proxy for operational scale in legitimate agencies.