Fifty-three suspects in Miami, Denver and Detroit were indicted in connection to false Medicare claims, primarily for expensive HIV infusion medication and physical and occupational therapy, the Miami Herald reports. Included in the arrests were doctors, clinic owners and patients charged with attempting to defraud the government program of $56 million in treatments that were medically unneeded and in some cases not provided.

According to the article, Attorney General Eric Holder, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and FBI Director Robert Mueller held a news conference June 24 at the Justice Department in Washington, DC, to discuss the government’s new urgency in detecting and preventing phony claims that cost Medicare billions of dollars each year.

“As demonstrated by today’s charges and arrests, we will strike back against those whose fraudulent schemes not only undermine a program upon which 45 million aged and disabled Americans depend, but which also contribute directly to rising health care costs that all Americans must bear,” Holder said.

Included in the recent indictments are five from a grand jury in eastern Michigan alleging more than $16 million in false Medicare bills for infusion services to treat HIV patients and an eight-person Miami-based scheme that exported HIV therapy scams to four other southern states.