The U.S. Department of Justice announced a major health care fraud crackdown in Southern California, resulting in multiple arrests of doctors, nurses, and other individuals.

Officials said eight people were arrested and more than a dozen charged in connection with schemes involving fraudulent hospice care claims.

Prosecutors allege defendants recruited people who were not terminally ill and paid them to pose as hospice patients to bill Medicare for millions of dollars.

Among those charged were a Covina couple accused of operating a Glendale-based hospice that submitted over $5 million in false claims, ABC 7 Los Angeles has reported.

Authorities also said they are reviewing hospice providers statewide while denying any connection between the case and unrelated prior public comments by federal officials.