15 charged in $135M California medical fraud

Tarzana chiropractor is among several health care professionals arrested and charged in alleged health care fraud schemes. The Department of Justice says collectively the schemes amount to $2 billion in losses. Fox 11's Rachel Aragon live in Tarzana with a closer look at the alleged crimes. Rachel. Hey, Christine. Yeah, we know right now several defendants, in fact, are being accused of a variety of health care schemes, including billing Medicare for unnecessary procedures. But right here in Tarzana, we know one of those early morning raids happening here for one of the defendants who's been accused of just that, billing Medicare for procedures patients did not ask for. Some people may ask, is it necessary to go out and arrest a chiropractor or a doctor? The answer is yes. They are just as much a criminal as a bank robber. In fact, they're worse. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Sainley is talking about this man, 61-year-old chiropractor Dr. Hamid Malek. Malek arrested Thursday morning in Tarzana for his alleged involvement in a $135 million Medicare fraud scheme. He and Surgeon Dr. Hal Tabib both accused of luring patients and subjecting them to unnecessary invasive procedures across several L.A.-based clinics. This is the worst type of health care fraud because you have doctors who are supposed to be doing no harm that are putting their financial interests, again, over the interests of their patients. Neighbors in Tarzana reacting to the fraud allegations. I was not shocked at all because of all the Medicare fraud that I'm hearing about right now. It's really bad. Thursday's federal raid in Tarzana, part of a larger takedown. The DOJ charging 15 people for a variety of health care fraud schemes. California takes fraud seriously. About an hour after the federal officials held their press conference, California Attorney General Rob Bonta held a separate press conference announcing results of a statewide Medi-Cal fraud sweep. Bonta claiming that the state was not giving credit for their involvement in the federal government's crackdown on Thursday. While the White House spreads myths about rampant fraud, we'll keep dispelling them not with words but with work. Asaley claimed the state should not be allowing this alleged medical fraud in the first place. California regulates doctors. These doctors should never have been in practice this long. Now we can tell you though federal officials though have not disclosed number of patients that underwent those unnecessary procedures, according to prosecutors. But they did tell us that some are still in pain and underwent more than one of those kind of procedures. Reporting live in Tarzana tonight. I'm Rachel Aragon. I'll send it back to you.