US justice today announced the dismantling of a huge health insurance scam, which caused nearly a billion dollars in losses and affected hundreds of thousands of patients.

The fraud consisted of providing orthopedic splints to elderly or disabled people who did not need them, but who were covered by the Medicare public insurance system. Suffering from joint problems or back pain, they were attracted by advertisements and contacted by call centers located in the Philippines and Latin America.

Doctors then made prescriptions without even meeting them and specialized companies provided splints for the knee, shoulder, back or wrist. The bills were sent to Medicare and commissions were paid to the various players in the chain. In total, more than 1.7 billion dollars have been claimed from Medicare, and 900 million paid, according to a press release from the Department of Justice.

After 70 searches across the United States, federal justice charged 24 people, including doctors and owners of telemarketing companies and call centers. Administrative sanctions have also been launched against 130 suppliers of orthopedic equipment. “Today we put an end to one of the biggest health insurance frauds in American history,” said senior FBI official Robert Johnson, quoted in the press release.

The Medicare system was created in the 1960s to provide public health insurance for people over 65. It has been extended to the poorest, the disabled, children and ex-servicemen and now covers 112 million Americans. He is regularly the victim of fraud. A unit specializing in the fight against these scams, created in 2007, opened proceedings against about 4,000 people, who in total tried to extract more than 14 billion dollars.