The U.S. Attorney’s Office filed charges in three fraud cases related to COVID-19 in Arizona.
“Very early on as the COVID-19 crisis was arising, the Department of Justice made it very clear that we wanted to be on the lookout for those who take advantage of times of chaos to defraud others,” said U.S. Attorney Michael Bailey.
In one case, a health care provider in Gold Canyon is accused of offering free COVID-19 tests to patients, but then billing Mercy Care, an Arizona health care benefit program, for additional services the patients didn’t need.
In the other cases, operators of nonemergency medical transports are accused of charging AHCCCS, Arizona’s Medicaid system, for rides they claimed they provided on the Navajo Nation during a time when the reservation was locked down.
Bailey said defrauding the government ultimately costs taxpayers.
“That’s what we have in all of these cases, are people billing the government or the government’s medical system for services that either weren’t rendered, in the case of the transportation, or were unnecessary,” he said.
Trials in the cases are set for June.
