FILE - Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks at the Department of Justice, Aug. 11, 2023, in Washington. The Justice Department has charged nearly 200 people in a sweeping crackdown on health care fraud schemes nationwide with false claims topping $2.7 billion. Garland announced the charges Thursday, June 27, 2024, against doctors, nurse practitioners and others across the U.S. accused of a variety of scams, including a $900 million scheme in Arizona targeting dying patients.
Nurse practitioners were pressured to apply the wound grafts to elderly patients who didn’t need them, including people in hospice care, the Justice Department said. Some patients died the day they received the grafts or within days, court papers say.
Gehrke and King lived lavishly off the scheme, prosecutors allege, citing in court papers luxury cars, a nearly $6 million home and more than $520,000 in gold bars, coins and jewelry. Officials seized more than $52 million from Gehrke’s personal and business bank accounts after her arrest, prosecutors say.