Trust Glozman Law with Chicago Healthcare Fraud Defense Attorney
Your license and your liberty are on the same line. We defend both.
Glozman Law defends physicians, practice owners, and healthcare executives in federal and Illinois fraud investigations, from civil demands and whistleblower complaints to criminal charges.
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IF YOUR PRACTICE OR COMPANY IS UNDER REVIEW
A Healthcare Fraud Investigation Can End a Career Before a Single Charge Is Filed
For a physician, a practice owner, or a healthcare executive, the first sign is rarely an arrest. It is a records request, a civil investigative demand, a subpoena, or word that a former employee has filed a sealed complaint. What feels like a billing dispute is often the visible edge of a federal investigation that has been running quietly, and the exposure reaches past prison to your license, your Medicare billing privileges, and the business you built.
Healthcare fraud cases turn on intent and on documentation. The government reads a pattern of claims and sees a scheme. The defense reads the same claims and sees medical judgment, coding decisions made in good faith, and care that was actually delivered. Which story the court believes depends heavily on who is telling it and how early the defense takes shape.
Statute referenced
Federal healthcare fraud is charged under 18 U.S.C. § 1347, carrying up to ten years in prison per offense, up to twenty years if the fraud results in serious bodily injury, and up to life if it results in death. Cases often pair criminal counts with civil liability under the False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. § 3729.
THE STATUTES BEHIND THE INVESTIGATION
Where Healthcare Fraud Exposure Comes From
Healthcare is one of the most heavily regulated arenas in federal law, and prosecutors have a deep toolbox. A single course of conduct can be framed under several statutes at once, civil and criminal, each with different elements and different consequences. Knowing which theory the government is pursuing is the starting point for dismantling it.
The provisions that drive most healthcare fraud matters are these.
- Health Care Fraud, 18 U.S.C. § 1347. The core criminal statute for schemes to defraud a health benefit program.
- False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. § 3729. Civil liability with treble damages, often driven by whistleblower (qui tam) complaints filed under seal.
- Anti-Kickback Statute, 42 U.S.C. § 1320a-7b. Criminalizes payment for referrals involving federal health programs.
- Stark Law. Restricts physician self-referral and creates strict-liability civil exposure even without intent.
- Program exclusion. Beyond any sentence, conviction or settlement can bar you from billing Medicare and Medicaid, which for many providers is the gravest penalty of all.
HOW WE DEFEND HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS
We Treat the Medicine and the Money as One Defense
A healthcare fraud defense has to speak two languages at once, the clinical and the legal. We work to show that the services billed were medically appropriate, that coding reflected reasonable judgment, and that any irregularity was error rather than a scheme to defraud. Where a whistleblower has driven the case, we examine the informant’s motives and the gaps in what they actually knew.
Because so much of the exposure is civil and administrative, the defense cannot focus only on avoiding a conviction. We work to protect your license, your billing privileges, and your ability to keep practicing, and we engage with HHS-OIG, the FBI, and DOJ during the investigation to argue against charges before they are brought. For a provider, a quiet resolution that preserves your career is often the entire point.
What Is Really at Stake
For most healthcare clients the prison term is not the only threat. Loss of licensure and exclusion from federal programs can end a practice even where the criminal exposure is contained. A defense that ignores those consequences is not a complete defense.
WHY PROVIDERS CHOOSE GLOZMAN LAW
Federal White-Collar Defense for the Healthcare Industry
Vadim A. Glozman’s federal practice includes prosecutions involving healthcare fraud, alongside the wire fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy charges that so often accompany them. He represents physicians, owners, and executives in matters built by federal agencies with significant resources.
Reasons clients choose the firm:
- A former-prosecutor’s read on your case. Charges are won or lost on how the government built the file. We pressure-test the theory the same way the people who assembled it would.
- You work directly with your attorney. You will not be handed off to a junior associate. Vadim A. Glozman stays on the case from the first call through resolution.
- Most of our best results are quiet. Many of our wins are cases that ended before an indictment, with no charge filed and no public record. Those outcomes are the goal, not the exception.
- Built for trial, resolved on our terms. We prepare every case as if it is going to a jury. That preparation is what gives negotiations their weight.
QUESTIONS PEOPLE ASK
Healthcare Fraud Investigations, Answered
Providers under investigation share the same early questions. These answers are a starting point, not advice about your own matter.
What triggers a federal healthcare fraud investigation?
Common triggers include data analytics that flag billing patterns, audits by Medicare contractors, complaints from patients or competitors, and whistleblower lawsuits filed under seal by former employees. By the time a provider learns of an investigation, agencies such as HHS-OIG and the FBI have often been gathering records and statements for some time.
What are the penalties for healthcare fraud?
Under 18 U.S.C. 1347, healthcare fraud carries up to ten years in prison per offense, increasing to twenty years if the fraud causes serious bodily injury and up to life if it causes death. Civil liability under the False Claims Act can mean treble damages. Conviction or settlement can also bring exclusion from Medicare and Medicaid, which ends the ability to bill federal programs.
What is a qui tam or whistleblower case?
A qui tam case is a lawsuit filed under the False Claims Act by a private person, often a current or former employee, on behalf of the government. It is filed under seal, meaning the provider may not know it exists while the government investigates. Examining the whistleblower’s actual knowledge and motives is frequently central to the defense.
Can I keep practicing during a healthcare fraud investigation?
Often yes, but it requires careful handling. Part of a strong defense is protecting your medical license and your billing privileges alongside the criminal exposure. Decisions about responding to subpoenas, talking to investigators, and managing your practice during an investigation should be made with counsel to avoid actions that make the administrative consequences worse.
Should I respond to a subpoena or records request on my own?
No. How you respond to a subpoena or civil investigative demand can shape the entire case. Producing the wrong records, or producing them without review, can hand the government its case. An attorney can negotiate scope, protect privileged material, and prevent disclosures that create new exposure.
WHERE WE PRACTICE
Chicago, Across Illinois, and in Federal Courts Nationwide
Healthcare fraud cases in this region are prosecuted in the Northern District of Illinois, with HHS-OIG and the FBI investigating providers across Chicago and the suburbs. We represent clients before federal agencies and in Illinois licensing matters that follow from an investigation.
Mr. Glozman represents clients in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse, in the Cook County criminal courts at 26th and California, in suburban courthouses across the collar counties, and in federal districts around the country when a case calls for it. If a federal agency has opened a file on you, the office where the case sits matters less than how early and how well it is defended.
Related Defense Practices
Cases rarely stay in one lane. A single investigation can touch several of the areas below, and we handle them under one roof.
- Grand Jury Investigations
- Tax Evasion
- Asset Forfeiture
- Money Laundering
Protect Your Practice and Your Freedom
A healthcare investigation moves on two fronts at once. Call to discuss a defense that addresses both before charges are filed.