42 U.S.C. §1320a–7b
Charges for payment of kickbacks or the receipt of kickbacks in a health care fraud or Medicare fraud case is extremely common. Under Federal law, it is illegal for a clinic, doctor, or other health care provider to pay for patients. At the same time, it is also illegal for a patient or a “patient broker” to be given payment of kickbacks for sending business to the health care provider.
In many cases, people who make payment of kickbacks or receive kickbacks in health care fraud or Medicare fraud cases think they will never be caught because the payments are made in cash.
While this may hold true for a long time, all it takes is for one person to get caught. When law enforcement is investigating a health care fraud or Medicare fraud case, they are eager to find someone who has information and can be coerced into cooperating.
A cooperating witness may be a doctor, a nurse, an office employee, or any other person who has familiarity with the health care fraud or Medicare fraud operation as well as who was making payment of kickbacks or receiving kickbacks.
You would be surprised to see how quickly business partners sell each other out when the fear of prison is looming.
Once one person begins to cooperate, law enforcement will attack the health care fraud / Medicare fraud case very aggressively. They will begin to identify all the people involved, assess their place and involvement in the health care fraud scheme, issue subpoenas to obtain records, and research their backgrounds. Investigators will obtain Medicare records, IRS tax returns, bank statements, and emails.