DOJ Announces New Data-Sharing Partnerships Amid $6.5 Billion Health Care Fraud Takedown

On June 23, 2026, the Department of Justice ("DOJ") announced the 2026 National Health Care Fraud Takedown, charging 455 defendants in connection with over $6.5 billion in alleged fraud.[1] The sprawling enforcement action spanned prosecutions in 56 federal districts and 45 US states and territories, with a record 50 state Medicaid Fraud Control Units participating.[2] DOJ also announced new data-sharing partnerships between DOJ fraud prosecutors and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services ("CMS"), Department of Homeland Security ("DHS"), and the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") to "enhance the deployment of advanced analytics to target health care fraud."[3] The announcement underscored the Trump administration's continued focus on federal program fraud and deployment of sophisticated data analytics to accelerate the investigation and prosecution of health care fraud.[4]

CMS will provide DOJ's Fraud Division "cloud computing space in the CMS Integrated Data Repository environment" to deploy data analytics and AI tools to detect potential fraud.[5] The partnerships with DHS and FTC are "aimed at breaking down data silos and improving access to information critical to identifying and combatting health care fraud."[6] DHS is expected to provide travel information to help identify providers billing for services while physically outside of their clinics, and FTC data is expected to include consumer complaints about telemarketing and telemedicine scams.[7] DOJ also highlighted the work of the Health Care Fraud Unit's Data Fusion Center - a multi-agency team that uses advanced data analytics - and its Financial Intelligence Review Team, which combines traditional data analytics with financial analysis and, in one case announced as part of the takedown, opened an investigation within five days of the financial intelligence review.[8]

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche described this year's takedown as "the greatest whole-of-government effort to combat health care fraud in our Nation's history."[9] This follows on the heels of DOJ's 2025 National Health Care Fraud Takedown, which at the time DOJ deemed the "largest . . . in history" and was said to more-than-double the amount of alleged fraud involved in prior takedowns.[10] The announcement thus underscores the extent to which health care fraud remains an area of robust enforcement scrutiny.

As DOJ continues to partner with other Departments to use new datasets and data-enabled tools to target fraud,[11] health care and life sciences companies should be aware of increased scrutiny and capacity around a priority enforcement area. CMS's suspension of 1,079 providers and revocation of billing privileges for 1,403 more illustrates the array of enforcement tools available to combat perceived fraud.[12] Those who operate in this highly regulated space should be alert to reviewing billing patterns for statistical outliers, ensuring documentation supports medical necessity, auditing kickback arrangements, and preparing to respond quickly to enforcement inquiries, mindful that data analytics can now flag anomalies in near-real-time.

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