Health care fraud remains one of the most persistent problems in the United States. According to the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association (NHCAA), financial losses from health care fraud amount to tens of billions of dollars each year.
One prominent example of large-scale health care fraud came to light in 2025 involving Trivikram Reddy, a nurse practitioner from Waxahachie, Texas, whose actions eventually led to one of the largest forfeiture orders tied to a health care fraud scheme.
In 2021, Reddy was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Wire fraud is an agreement between two or more individuals to use electronic communications to carry out fraudulent activity.
Following his conviction, the government filed a civil forfeiture action. That effort culminated in a public announcement on March 26, 2025, when the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas revealed that Reddy had been ordered to forfeit more than $40 million held in foreign bank accounts. The announcement was made by Acting U.S. Attorney Chad E. Meacham.
According to federal authorities, after Reddy’s conviction, investigators discovered that he and others had transferred and laundered the fraud proceeds into nearly 200 bank accounts in India. Through forensic financial analysis, the government traced the funds and obtained seizure warrants.
On March 3, 2025, after Reddy and two family members agreed to return up to $41,237,703.16, U.S. District Judge Ada Brown ordered the funds to be transferred to U.S. government custody.
Court documents detail how the scheme operated between 2014 and 2019. Reddy devised a plan to defraud Medicare and major private insurers, including Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, Aetna, UnitedHealthcare, Humana, and Cigna. Millions of fraudulent medical claims were submitted using the provider numbers of six doctors listed as the treating physicians. In reality, none of those doctors provided any billable services at Reddy’s clinics, and all claims were false.
When federal agents began questioning the billing practices, Reddy and his staff manufactured fake medical records in a failed attempt to justify the claims. As the investigation intensified, Reddy abruptly closed his three clinics: Waxahachie Medical, Texas Care Clinics, and Vcare Health Services. Shortly after, he made wire transfers totaling approximately $55 million to multiple accounts.
Reddy pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in October 2020. In May 2021, Judge Ada Brown sentenced him to 20 years in prison and ordered him to pay more than $50 million in restitution to the victims.
The case was investigated by the FBI Dallas Field Office and the Health and Human Services-Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG).
According to the NHCAA, a conservative estimate places fraud at approximately 3 percent of total health care expenditures. In 2018, the country spent $3.6 trillion on health care, representing billions of health insurance claims. Some government and law enforcement agencies estimate that as much as 10 percent of annual health spending may be lost to fraud, an amount that could be more than $300 billion.
(Rh/VK)