• Scrubs
  • Posts
  • đŸ©ș DOJ vs COVID Fraudsters

đŸ©ș DOJ vs COVID Fraudsters

So far, 18 bad actors have been linked to a $490m COVID fraud scheme. Here is what you need to know.

Author

Miles Beaudoin
April 26, 2023

Good morning. This is Scrubs. We’re like a taco - a few good bites and only filled with the stuff you like. I know what i’m having for lunch. 

First time reading? Sign up here.

This is today’s agenda:

  • đŸ§‘â€âš–ïž DOJ vs COVID Fraudsters

  • 🔐 Hospital Cybersecurity is
leaky

  • 📚 Interesting Reads

  • 🚿 Shower Thoughts

đŸ§‘â€âš–ïž DOJ vs COVID Fraudsters

So far, 18 bad actors have been linked to a $490m COVID fraud scheme. Here is what you need to know.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) just charged 18 individuals, including doctors and testing suppliers, in its biggest-ever action against COVID-19 healthcare fraud schemes. The charges resulted from false federal billing of over $490m. That’s a lot of cheddar.

The DOJ formed a COVID-19 fraud task force agency in May 2021 to crack down on fraudsters. In the past three years, the agency has charged 53 defendants and convicted 20 for healthcare-related COVID-19 schemes.

In total, these schemes have cost the federal government over $784m.

And, sadly, many defendants were charged with defrauding the COVID-19 uninsured program, a federal initiative that reimburses providers for pandemic-related services provided to uninsured patients.

Additionally, medical professionals who forged COVID-19 vaccination cards were also charged. Twelve defendants were charged for misappropriating funds intended for frontline medical providers, and seven have plead guilty, according to the DOJ.

🔐 Hospital Cybersecurity is
leaky

New study finds that healthcare organizations are more reactive than proactive with cybersecurity.

The study assessed the healthcare industry's alignment with the standards established by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Health Industry Cybersecurity Practices (HICP). And, it was designed to establish actionable benchmarks for cybersecurity resilience.

🔎 Key findings:

  • Supply chain risk management had the lowest coverage across NIST functions

  • Email system protections showed strength

  • Medical device security lagged in relation to HICP guidance

  • Organizations were best prepared for responding to attacks

  • Organizations were least able to identify attacks

  • Email had the highest protections (regardless of organizational size)

  • Between 2017 and 2023

    • the percentage of total IT expenditure allocated to cybersecurity increased substantially

    • cybersecurity insurance premiums increased

🧠 On this Day (April 26th)

  • In 1956, the first modern container ship, the Ideal X, left Port Newark, New Jersey for Houston, TX

  • In 1986, the world saw the worst nuclear disaster to date. The 4th reactor at Chornobyl nuclear plant exploded; 31 died and a lot of Western Europe was exposed to radioactive contamination.

  • In 2005, Syria withdrew its last troops from Lebanon. Ending its 29-year military occupation over Lebanon.

📚 Interesting Reads

🚿 Shower Thoughts

  • After the Titanic completely rusts away, there will definitely be conspiracy theories that it never really existed. Source

  • Since spaceships aren’t available to everyone yet, the golden age of piracy hasn’t happened. Source

  • No animal has benefited more from cars than Vultures. Source

  • The most important skill to learn is the skill to learn. Source

  • Astronomers are actually historians of the universe. Source

😆 Funnybone

That’s a wrap for today! If you enjoyed this edition of Scrubs, make sure you forward it to a friend so we can grow together.

See you again on Friday,

First time reading? Sign up here.