Two nursing home chains have agreed to settle previously unannounced cases as part of a Justice Department sweep that led to criminal charges against 324 healthcare-involved defendants nationwide.

Federal officials announced the 2025 National Health Care Fraud Takedown Monday, largely highlighting cases involving individuals charged in schemes representing more than $14.6 billion in intended losses.

But the announcement also illustrated why providers need to stay hyper-vigilant in compliance efforts even during an administration that in many ways appears to be more business-friendly. The Justice Department announced what it called record-breaking results.

In one case highlighted Monday, officials said Centers Health Care agreed to pay more than $6 million to resolve allegations that 44 skilled nursing facilities in New York, Rhode Island, Kansas and Missouri submitted Medicare cost reports that “contained false statements or omitted material information regarding their transactions with related organizations.”

The US Attorneys Office of New York investigated the cost-reporting lapses and said that Centers “admitted that its management knew or reasonably should have known of the false statements.” The settlement deal was effective June 23, according to a document provided along with a Justice Department press release.

McKnight’s Long-Term Care News’ request for comment from a Centers Health Care spokesman was not returned by deadline.

In a second notable case, the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan and the Department of Justice’s Commercial Litigation Branch-Fraud Section worked together to reach a $4.5 million resolution of a False Claims Act case involving Villa Financial Services LLC, Villa Olympia Investment LLC, and six southeast Michigan Villa nursing homes.

The payment will put an end to an investigation into a whistleblower’s claims that Villa and the six involved facilities were “systematically failing to provide services to nursing home residents and/or providing materially and grossly substandard services to nursing home residents.”

The named nursing homes included The Ambassador, Father Murray, Imperial, Regency, St. Joseph’s and Westland. 

No court documents were published in the Villa case, and they may remain under seal.

But Villa Healthcare’s media relations department told McKnight’s Monday evening that the allegations were related to activities that occurred between 2018 and 2021, under a previous owner.

“Villa Healthcare-affiliated centers officially completed a change in ownership in 2023 and have since focused on significant improvements, operational enhancements, and investments across locations,” the company said in an emailed statement, noting $25 million in remodelling efforts underway. “These efforts reflect the organization’s long-term commitment to investing in its people, its physical spaces, and the communities it serves. We remain dedicated to providing better care and creating a stronger, more supportive workplace for our residents and team members.”

The Department of Justice claimed that the government had seized more than $245 million in cash, luxury vehicles, cryptocurrency and other assets as part of the coordinated enforcement efforts against the hundreds of defendants.

Many of the healthcare fraud cases involved individuals or networks with international ties.

Civil charges against 20 defendants for $14.2 million in alleged fraud, as well as civil settlements with 106 defendants totaling $34.3 million also were announced.

And as part of the joint effort, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services also announced Monday that it prevented more than $4 billion from being paid “in response to false and fraudulent claims” and that it suspended or revoked the billing privileges of 205 providers in the months leading up to the enforcement action.

In addition to charges against nursing homes, the fraud initiative’s case descriptions include pending cases against several individuals who worked in nursing homes. Another $1.1 billion case drew substantial attention to wound care, and that sector’s efforts to weed out fraudulent use of some innovative treatment modalities.

Charges were filed in the District of Arizona and the District of Nevada against seven defendants, including five medical professionals, in connection with approximately $1.1 billion in fraudulent insurance claims related to the use of amniotic wound allografts. 

The report said some healthcare fraud defendants targeted “vulnerable elderly patients, many of whom were receiving hospice care, and applied medically unnecessary amniotic allografts to these patients’ wounds.” That led to millions in illegal kickbacks, officials said.

CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz, MD, credited advanced data analytics and real-time monitoring as vital toward uncovering and prosecuting the criminal charges.