(AP) -- Mafia figures and other violent criminals are increasingly switching from dealing drugs to health care fraud. They're devising schemes that offer a greater payoff and carry much shorter prison sentences than drug trafficking or robbery. Most of the schemes are based in Miami, Los Angeles, Detroit and Houston.
Federal authorities say Medicare scammers typically make their money by billing Medicare for equipment and drugs that patients never receive. It's unclear how many violent crimes are tied to Medicare fraud because most of them are carried out by someone within the hoax who attacks another person taking part in the crime.
One Southern California criminal task force has arrested about 50 suspects for Medicare fraud in the last three years.
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