MIAMI (AP):

Federal authorities arrested more than 30 suspects, including doctors, and were seeking others in a major health-care fraud bust yesterday in New York, Louisiana, Boston and Houston, targeting scams such as arthritis kits expensive braces that many patients never used.

More than 200 agents worked on the $16 million bust that included 12 search warrants at health-care businesses and homes across the Houston area, where the bulk of the arrests were made.

Federal authorities say those businesses were giving patients arthritis kits, which were nothing more than expensive orthotics that included knee and shoulder braces and heating pads. Patients told authorities they were unnecessary and many never even received them. But health-care clinic owners billed between $3,000 to $4,000 for each kit.

Billed for food

Houston's other scam involved billing Medicare, the federal health-care programme for the elderly, for thousands of dollars worth of liquid food like Ensure for patients who cannot eat solid food. Authorities said clinic owners never distributed the food to patients. In some cases, clinic owners billed patients who were dead when they allegedly received the items.

It's the third major sweep since Attorney General Eric Holder and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced in May they were adding millions of dollars and dozens of agents to combat a problem that costs the United States billions each year.