90 Snared in Medicare Fraud Roundup

WASHINGTON (CN) – A Medicare fraud roundup in six cities against 90 people, including 16 doctors, accuses the defendants of submitting more than a quarter billion dollars in false billings, federal officials said Tuesday.     Fifty people were charged in Miami, 11 in Houston, eight in Los Angeles, seven in Detroit, seven in Tampa and seven in Brooklyn, the Department of Justice said in a statement.     It was the seventh wide-ranging operation of the Medicare Strike Force, which was formed in 2007, the Justice Department and Department of Health and Human Services said.     The Strike Force has charged nearly 1,900 people who falsely billed Medicare for nearly $6 billion, prosecutors said. More than 17,000 providers have been removed from the Medicare program since 2011.