DOJ Charges Six Doctors in a $464 Million Opioid-Related Fraud Scheme

​Six doctors in Michigan were charged with insurance fraud and unnecessary prescribing of opioids, according to a December 6, 2018, release from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Eastern District of Michigan. The doctors were involved in a $464 million fraud scheme that featured more than 13 million unlawfully prescribed opioid drugs, DOJ said. The scheme involved billing insurance companies for the maximum number of services and procedures "with no regard to the patients' needs," DOJ said. The doctors used the promise of opioid prescriptions to lure patients into the office, the DOJ said, and subsequently "forced" them to undergo ancillary services such as painful facet joint and facet block injections if they wished to receive the highly addictive opioid prescriptions.