In the highest annual total in the history of the statute, the Department of Justice’s False Claims Act settlements and judgments exceeded $6.8 billion in fiscal year 2025, with more than $5.7 billion of those recoveries tied to healthcare.
That record was set before acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche launched the National Fraud Enforcement Division April 7, consolidating the DOJ’s fragmented fraud units into a single operation with a mandate to protect more than $1 trillion in taxpayer spending.
Since the enactment of the fraud division, nine physicians have been named in Justice Department fraud cases:
1. Jonathan Morris, MD, a physician and practice owner in Columbia, Mo., was indicted April 8 on 23 counts of healthcare fraud and 15 counts of illegally prescribing controlled substances. From at least May 1, 2019, through April 8, 2025, Dr. Morris billed Medicare and Medicaid for medical services that were claimed to have been provided by Dr. Morris, but in reality were provided by assistant physicians he employed.
2. Two St. Louis-area physicians and a chiropractor have been sentenced for their roles in a $4.7 million healthcare fraud and opioid prescription scheme involving Medicare, Medicaid and Tricare. Jerry Leech, a Clayton, Mo., chiropractor described by prosecutors as “the ringmaster of the conspiracy,” was sentenced to 100 months in prison and ordered to repay $4.7 million. Mr. Leech orchestrated a scheme in which two physicians — Stanley Librach, MD, and Asim Ali, MD — wrote oxycodone prescriptions and other controlled substances for patients they had not examined and without legitimate medical purpose, while Mr. Leech actively encouraged the prescribing despite aberrant drug test results. Mr. Leech admitted responsibility for at least 94,971 oxycodone pills distributed without legitimate medical purpose.
3. Surgeon Mustafa Hares, MD, of West Bloomfield, Mich., has been sentenced to 12 months in federal prison for his role in a scheme to submit more than $7 million in fraudulent Medicare claims for psychotherapy services that were never rendered. Between 2019 and 2023, Dr. Hares joined with co-conspirator Mohammed Kazkaz to sign purported patient progress notes that were actually written by employees in Mexico rather than actual medical providers.
4. Ali Rashan, MD, New York City anesthesiologist who founded a chain of COVID-19 testing clinics, pleaded guilty to fraudulently billing insurance companies for services never rendered, causing at least $24 million in losses. Dr. Rashan, founded and operated ClearMD, which ran several COVID-19 testing clinics throughout New York City from 2021 through 2023. Despite advertising full-service testing that included physical exams and telehealth follow-up visits, ClearMD clinics were typically staffed by untrained medical assistants with no licensed physicians on site.
5. Robert Tassin, MD, a physician in Slidell, La., was sentenced April 9 to probation for a scheme to bill Medicare for medically unnecessary tests. From February to September 2019, Dr. Tassin worked with telemedicine companies, signing orders for cancer genetics tests for Medicare beneficiaries he never treated. The orders resulted in more than $6.6 million in false claims to Medicare. The program reimbursed more than $2 million for the claims.
6. Boca Raton, Fla.-based Mitchell Eye Center and Alan Mitchell, MD, have agreed to pay $415,000 to resolve False Claims Act allegations related to fraudulent billing for brain blood flow diagnostic tests. Between September 2018 and March 2020, the physician and practice allegedly caused the submission of false claims to Medicare and the Veterans Health Administration for transcranial doppler tests. The practice received per-referral payments from diagnostics company Eyecuity for TCD test referrals in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute, and physicians signed order forms indicating patients had a rare condition — Vertebrobasilar Insufficiency — without having reason to believe those diagnoses were accurate.
7. Feliciano Serrano, MD, of Huntington Park, Calif.-based Serrano Kidney & Vascular Access Center agreed to pay more than $6.73 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations of performing medically unnecessary vascular procedures on Medicare beneficiaries. Between 2016 and 2024, Dr. Serrano allegedly performed unnecessary dialysis access interventions on 18 patients and unnecessary peripheral artery disease interventions on 17 patients.
8. Helen Boerman, OD, an optometrist in Brentwood, Tenn., pleaded guilty to defrauding Medicare of $6.9 million. Dr. Boerman used her practice, Brentwood Eye Care, to submit about $11 million in false Medicare claims, and she received nearly $7 million. For more than three years, Dr. Boerman submitted claims for reimbursement of wound care products that were never actually purchased or used.
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