* Sebelius uses arrests to defend Obama healthcare law 
 
 * FBI investigating more than 2,600 healthcare fraud cases 
 
 By Jeremy Pelofsky 
 
 WASHINGTON, May 2 (Reuters) - U.S. authorities have charged 107 people, including doctors and nurses, for trying to defraud the federal Medicare healthcare program for the elderly and disabled of about $452 million, the biggest Medicare fraud sweep to date, the Obama administration said on Wednesday. 
 
 At least 91 people were arrested in Miami; Houston; Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and four other cities on a variety of charges: from submitting false billing for home healthcare, mental health services, HIV infusions and physical therapy to money laundering and receiving kickbacks. 
 
 Justice Department and Health and Human Services Department officials were unable to say how much Medicare actually paid out, but a review of 34 complaints and indictments found that authorities were seeking to recover at least $59.5 million of allegedly ill-gotten gains. 
 
 "These fraud schemes were committed by people up and down the chain of healthcare providers - from doctors, nurses, and licensed clinical social workers, to office managers and patient recruiters," said Lanny Breuer, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's criminal division. 
 
 President Barack Obama's administration has been pushing to squeeze out fraud from federal programs like Medicare as part of a broader attempt to stem soaring healthcare costs, arguing fraud can contribute to rising prices for services. 
 
 Breuer said that it is the single largest Medicare billing fraud sweep by the Justice Department's special task force in its five-year history. In September, the Obama administration charged 91 people in connection with a variety of schemes aimed at bilking Medicare out of $295 million. 
 
 The FBI said it is investigating more than 2,600 cases of healthcare fraud with more than 500 agents and analysts. Since March 2007, the Justice Department said, it has charged more than 1,300 people for falsely billing Medicare more than $4 billion. 
 
 Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius sought to use the arrests to defend Obama's controversial healthcare law passed in 2010, arguing that additional resources provided under the law helped authorities root out fraud. 
 
 "Today's actions are another example of how the Affordable Care Act is helping the Obama administration fight fraud and strengthen the Medicare program," Sebelius said. 
 
 Republicans and 26 out of the 50 U.S. states have challenged the law and are seeking to have it invalidated as unconstitutional because it would require Americans to have health insurance coverage or pay a penalty. 
 
 SEVEN ARRESTED IN BATON ROUGE 
 
 The biggest cases were in Baton Rouge where seven people were arrested and charged with eight counts, including conspiracy and healthcare fraud for billing Medicare for some $225.6 million in unnecessary services and in some cases not providing services billed. 
 
 They ran and worked at two community mental health centers in Louisiana where they billed for more group therapy sessions than were provided, including recreational and education psychotherapy, according to court records. 
 
 Medicare paid out more than $37.9 million for the services to the two centers in Baton Rouge, identified as Shifa Community Mental Health Center and Serenity Center, according to the records. 
 
 U.S. prosecutors sought to have two of the owners of the centers, Hoor Naz Jafri and Roslyn Dogan, held without bond pending trial. Dogan was also accused of stealing evidence from the prosecutors' office in a bid to obstruct the investigation, according to a detention memo. 
 
 Four others who worked as therapists at the centers pleaded guilty last month to one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud for purporting to provide group therapy and document patients' attendance, the court documents said. 
 
 In one case out of Miami, 10 people were charged with allegedly seeking $63 million in reimbursements from Medicare as some therapists altered their paperwork to try to justify services for patients who did not need them. 
 
 In another Florida case, one person was accused of receiving kickbacks to refer patients to a company that offered home health and physical therapy services, submitting $60 million in claims. Medicare reimbursed that group, NANY Home Health Inc, $40 million. 
 
 Last month, the three operators of NANY Home Health were sentenced to lengthy prison terms for their roles in the scheme and were ordered to pay $40 million in restitution. ||||| Federal agents take away computers from Willsand Home Health Agency Inc. in Miami. (Alan Diaz, Associated Press / ) 
 
 WASHINGTON — Doctors, nurses and social workers from across the country, 107 in all, were charged in what federal officials in Washington called a "nationwide takedown" of medical professionals accused of fraudulently billing Medicare out of nearly half a billion dollars. 
 
 The amount of bogus Medicare claims, totaling about $452 million, was the highest in a single raid in the history of a federal strike force combating rising fraud in the medical industry, according to the Justice Department. Arrests were made in seven major cities. 
 
 The Obama administration said it was toughening its attack on those who filed bills for ambulance rides never taken and medical procedures never provided. 
 
 In addition, officials in the Health and Human Services Department suspended or took other administrative actions against 52 medical providers after analyzing billing requests and finding additional "credible allegations of fraud." 
 
 In the Los Angeles area, eight people, including two doctors, were charged with fraudulently billing about $20 million for services never provided. 
 
 Bolademi Adetola, owner of healthcare equipment provider Latay Medical Services in Gardena, was charged with billing Medicare for power wheelchairs that were never purchased. Greatcare Home Health in Los Angeles allegedly paid kickbacks to recruiters to find "patients" who were perfectly fine, and then have doctors knowingly write phony prescriptions for them. 
 
 Dr. Augustus Ohemeng and Dr. George Tarryk, who treated patients at the Pacific Clinic in Long Beach, were among four individuals who allegedly falsely billed for feeding tubes for patients who did not need them. 
 
 None of the defendants or their lawyers could be reached for comment. 
 
 Assistant Atty. Gen. Lanny Breuer, head of the Justice Department's criminal division, said the arrests, fourth in a series of Medicare fraud takedowns over the last two years, served as another warning to future scammers. 
 
 "Medicare is an attractive target for criminals," Breuer said, even as prosecution and jail time is risked with every false claim. 
 
 "If you don't believe it," he said, "ask Lawrence Duran, the former owner of a mental healthcare company in Miami who was sentenced last year to 50 years in prison. Or his two co-owners, each of whom was sentenced to 35 years." 
 
 Of the 107 defendants in the latest crackdown, 87 were arrested Wednesday. Federal agents were either still looking for the others or expecting them to surrender voluntarily. 
 
 The other cities were Miami; Tampa, Fla.; Houston; Baton Rouge, La.; Detroit and Chicago. 
 
 The Obama administration has stepped up efforts to combat fraud in the Medicare program, which provides health coverage to about 50 million elderly and disabled Americans. 
 
 Last year the federal government charged 1,430 people with healthcare fraud, up from 797 in 2008, according to the Health and Human Services Department. The agency also reported revoking the eligibility of more than 60,000 Medicare and Medicaid providers and suppliers and recovering $4.1 billion in fraudulent claims. 
 
 Although there is broad agreement that fraud is widespread in Medicare and Medicaid, estimates of the scope of the program vary from $20 billion a year to $100 billion. Total spending on Medicare and Medicaid is expected to reach about $1 trillion this year. 
 
 Louis Saccoccio, chief executive of the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Assn., said the latest round of arrests was encouraging and reflected the intensified efforts by the government to combat fraud, especially since 2009. 
 
 He said he was most pleased to see that the Health and Human Services Department had stopped payments to 52 providers by using new tools to analyze data and detect potentially fraudulent charges. 
 
 The system, which was set up by the healthcare law President Obama signed two years ago, relies on a computer program to identify patterns of potentially fraudulent charges by providers. "That really has the promise to be a game changer," he said. "In the future, what you will see is the real impact is going to come from preventing fraud." 
 
 richard.serrano@latimes.com 
 
 Times staff writer Noam N. Levey contributed to this report.
– The Justice Department's special Medicare fraud strike team made its biggest bust ever yesterday, charging 107 doctors, nurses, and other alleged fraudsters in a "nationwide takedown" affecting seven cities. All told, they're accused of bilking the government out of $452 million, the Los Angeles Times reports. Among the scams: billing Medicare for never-purchased power wheelchairs, never-held therapy sessions, and unnecessary feeding tubes. Health and Human Services also suspended or otherwise penalized 52 medical providers where it found "credible allegations of fraud." The lion's share of the fraud was allegedly committed by seven people at two Baton Rouge community health centers, who billed Medicare $225.6 million for services the government alleges were unnecessary and often never actually performed, Reuters reports. Kathleen Sebelius hailed the arrests as "another example of how the Affordable Care Act is helping the Obama administration fight fraud," arguing that the controversial law had provided the resources to make the busts. This is the fourth big bust by the fraud team in two years.