DOJ healthcare enforcement actions, explained.
Plain-English summaries of major Stark Law and Anti-Kickback Statute settlements. What happened, what it means for your arrangements, sourced from DOJ press releases and federal-court dockets. Updated periodically; last reviewed 2026-05-06.
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$1.3B
Esformes Skilled-Nursing Kickback Scheme
Cash bribes to physicians and patient recruiters drove a 20-year sentence and the largest individual healthcare-fraud penalty on record.
$623M
Olympus Corporation of the Americas
Free equipment, training, and foreign travel offered to hospitals and physicians as inducements for medical-device purchases.
$513M
Tenet Healthcare / HMA Settlement
Fabricated FMV opinions and above-market consulting fees converted referral relationships into $513M of tainted Medicaid claims.
$85M
Halifax Health Medical Director Settlement
Six oncology medical-directorship agreements paid bonuses tied to referral volume, breaching Stark's prohibition on volume-based compensation.
$72.4M
United States v. Tuomey Healthcare System
Part-time employment agreements with 19 specialists effectively compensated them for referrals; the largest Stark FCA verdict at the time.
$69.5M
North Broward Hospital District
Nine employed physicians' compensation systematically exceeded their personally-collected revenue, signaling pay tied to referral volume.
$65M
Prime Healthcare ER Admit Scheme
Emergency-department medical directors received bonuses tied to admission rates, creating a financial incentive to admit rather than treat-and-release.
$50M
Wheeling Hospital Cardiology Division
Compensation paid to high-referring cardiologists materially exceeded contemporaneous market benchmarks without supporting FMV opinions.
$28M
Methodist Hospital Memphis
Clinical space leased to a referring oncology group at below-FMV rates, structured to reward referral volume rather than space-cost reimbursement.
$22M
St. Joseph Medical Center Bonuses
Cardiology medical-directorship contracts paid bonuses based on the number of patient admissions referred by the directors.