Over 193 doctors, nurse practitioners and other healthcare professionals were charged today with $2.7 billion in healthcare fraud across the country, including two Arizonans.
The Arizonans, Alexandra Gehrke and Jeffrey King, were arrested this month at Sky Harbor while attempting to catch a flight to London. Gehrke and King, who married in February, are charged with accepting over $330 million in kickbacks as part of a conspiracy to bill Medicare for amniotic wound grafts. These wound grafts are alleged to have been applied to elderly persons unnecessarily and to people who were within days of dying. False claims of more than $900 million were submitted for payment to Medicare involving less than 500 patients in less than a two-year period. According to the charges, a search of Gehrke and King’s residence turned up a copy of “How to Disappear: Erase Your Digital Footprint, Leave False Trails, and Vanish Without a Trace.” They are alleged to have been attempting to flee when they were arrested. $52 million has been seized from Gehrke’s bank account.
A different scheme in Arizona targeted Native Americans with addiction issues. This scheme involved setting up sober living homes and then billing the government for services that were not actually performed.
For more on this story, here are some links:
WATCH: Garland details nationwide enforcement against $2.7 billion in health care fraud | PBS News
DOJ charges nearly 200 people in $2.7B health care fraud crackdown | AP News
Gehrke and King’s wedding website can be viewed here: