By PAUL O’DONOGHUE, Senior Correspondent
THE U.S. Treasury Department has identified about $17.5 billion in suspicious financial activity potentially linked to health care fraud.
The findings are based on more than 5,700 Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) reports filed by financial institutions over a one-year period.
Most subjects were based in the U.S. Of about 13,000 subject addresses in the reports, roughly 1.5% were foreign addresses.
FinCEN, the Treasury’s financial crimes unit, said the financial intelligence could help law enforcement disrupt schemes targeting taxpayer-funded health care programmes.
Scott Bessent, the Treasury Secretary., said: “By identifying and reporting this suspicious activity, financial institutions have given law enforcement critical insight into the illicit actors who deliberately exploit U.S. health care benefits programs.
“Treasury will continue working alongside our law enforcement partners to disrupt fraud wherever it occurs.”
FinCEN analysed 5,702 BSA reports filed between March 1, 2025 and February 28, 2026.
Depository institutions filed about 89% of the reports. They also accounted for nearly 87% of the reported suspicious activity amounts.
Suspected US healthcare fraud
The suspected schemes involved Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance. Potentially fraudulent funds often came from a combination of federal and state programmes and private insurers.
Home health care businesses accounted for the largest share of suspected fraudulent providers. They appeared in 20% of health care fraud-related BSA reports.
Other frequently identified providers included
- Hospice companies
- Mental health and addiction treatment providers
- Medical equipment businesses
- Adult or child daycares.
“A small percentage of filers reported suspected health care fraud activity potentially involving large fraud rings or criminal networks, as well as some potential connections to foreign entities” FinCEN said.
FinCEN said the findings reinforce its March advisory on health care fraud targeting Medicare, Medicaid and other government health care programmes.
That advisory is available to view [HERE].
“Although BSA reports filed after the issuance of the Advisory were not included in the scope of this [notice], the typologies and trends in the post-Advisory BSA filings are consistent with the trends reported in the [March notice],” FinCEN said.
We hope you enjoyed reading this article
If you would like unlimited access to AML Intelligence premium articles, newsletter delivered twice a week, access to our Global Bank Fines and Penalties database, free access to Boardroom Series events and much more, select one of our subscription options and become a subscriber!
