How Agents Hunt for Fraud in Trove of Medicare Data

Dr. Robert Glazer, who has been accused of Medicare fraud, ran a clinic on the second floor of a strip mall. Michal Czerwonka for The Wall Street Journal

Law-Enforcement Officials Estimate Fraud Accounts for as Much as 10% of Medicare's Yearly Spending

By Christopher S. Stewart, WSJ
Aug. 14, 2014 10:30 p.m. ET

HOLLYWOOD HILLS, Calif.—Eleven armed FBI agents crept around a stone-and-glass house here just before dawn. An AR-15 rifle and four other guns were registered to the man in the house.

"FBI warrant," the agents called out, and a man in a T-shirt and shorts emerged.

It was no drug lord. The target was a doctor who moonlighted as a movie producer with an Alec Baldwin comedy to his credit. The Justice Department charged the doctor, Robert A. Glazer, with writing prescriptions and certifications resulting in $33 million of fraudulent Medicare claims.

The raid in May capped a year-long investigation by the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, a joint effort by the Justice Department and Department of Health and Human Services. Raids that day in six cities resulted in the busts of 90 Medicare providers, including 16 doctors, who were separately charged with generating a total of $260 million of false Medicare billings.

(More here.)