DOJ Plans to Add More Anti-Fraud Staff, Target Healthcare

WASHINGTON—The Department of Justice (DOJ) plans to add as many as 500 new lawyers and other staff members focused on stopping fraud, and home health and hospice are top priorities, according to a memo released by the agency. 

United States Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald wrote an updated memo outlining plans for the DOJ’s National Fraud Enforcement Division, which was created earlier this year. 

McDonald said the department is reorganizing resources from other department to bolster the Fraud Division, which he said would increase headcount to approximately 500 attorneys and staff by Aug. 24 (no updates on that progress were available at press time). He said he had put “an aggressive plan” in place to increase the number of division personnel, including specialized litigating sections. 

“Fraud Division prosecutors will be supported by asset recovery attorneys and investigators, top-flight appellate counsel, a dedicated privilege review team, corporate enforcement experts, automated litigation support, a cross-disciplinary team of experts in data science and cutting-edge technology and resources,” McDonald said. “We are organizing the division to be lean, flat and agile, reducing excessive bureaucratic oversight so that the Fraud Division’s career prosecutors—deployed across the country to work in concert with United States Attorneys’ Offices—can focus on following the facts and charging violations of the law.”

Much of their focus will be on health care fraud, which was listed as the second of five focus areas in the memo. McDonald called out home health and hospice “scams” specifically in the memo and said the division will use “cutting-edge data analysis to target exploitative health care schemes.” 

“By supercharging the historically successful Health Care Fraud Strike Force model with greater resources, data analytics support, and best-in-class technology, the Fraud Division will prosecute the most significant cases involving health care in the United States,” he wrote.