On April 30, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) National Fraud Enforcement Division (Fraud Division) announced the launch of the West Coast Health Care Fraud Strike Force (Strike Force), an enforcement initiative focused on investigating and prosecuting complex health care fraud schemes. The Strike Force, described by the DOJ as a "powerful partnership," will draw on resources and expertise from the U.S. Attorney's Offices for the District of Arizona, the District of Nevada, and the Northern District of California, as well as the Fraud Division's Health Care Fraud Section. 

The Strike Force will operate under the DOJ's Health Care Fraud Strike Force framework, which relies on centralized data analytics, cross‑agency coordination, and early involvement of prosecutors to pursue investigations and prosecutions. The approach is consistent with the DOJ's established strategy of aggressively targeting complex fraud through region-specific strike forces that pair prosecutors from local U.S. Attorney's Offices with special agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Health and Human Service's (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG), and other law enforcement agencies. Since 2007, the DOJ reports that Medicare Fraud Strike Force teams have operated out of several major cities in the U.S, including Miami, Los Angeles, Detroit, Houston, Brooklyn, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Tampa, Orlando, Chicago, Dallas, Washington, DC, Newark, and Philadelphia. The DOJ confirmed that the separate Health Care Fraud Strike Force in Los Angeles will remain in operation.

In announcing the Strike Force, the DOJ highlighted an increase in technologically sophisticated health care fraud in Western states, including schemes involving telehealth, platform-based care delivery, substance‑abuse treatment providers, and specialty medical product suppliers. Craig H. Missakian, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California, called Silicon Valley "ground zero for technology-driven health care fraud schemes that seek to cheat taxpayer-funded programs like Medicare" and highlighted recent fraud prosecutions, such as the November 19, 2025 conviction in San Francisco of the CEO and Chief Medical Officer of a digital technology company for a $100 million criminal health care fraud scheme to distribute Adderall over the internet. 

The Strike Force is the latest DOJ initiative to expand anti-fraud enforcement as part of the Trump administration's declared efforts to root out waste, fraud, and abuse. The creation of the DOJ Fraud Division, announced earlier this year and led by Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald, demonstrates the administration's desire to dedicate further resources to identifying and prosecuting fraud against the government. Further, as Miller & Chevalier previously reported, the DOJ committed to maintain and expand its use of the False Claims Act (FCA) to target fraud, and last year reinstituted the FCA Working Group, focusing on health care fraud. The announcement of the Strike Force once again signals the administration's intention to aggressively pursue both criminal and civil claims of health care fraud, including shifting resources to high-profile forms of technology-assisted health care delivery. Individuals and entities doing business in these sectors, in the West Coast region and elsewhere, should expect heightened scrutiny from both enforcement officials and potential whistleblowers.

Miller & Chevalier represents corporations and individuals subject to civil and criminal fraud investigations, including criminal claims of health care fraud and civil claims under the FCA. 

For more information, please contact:

Joshua Drew, jdrew@milchev.com, 202-626-5811

Bradley E. Markano, bmarkano@milchev.com, 202-626-6061

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