On July 20, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a special fraud alert to warn and encourage physicians as well as non-physician practitioners to exercise heightened caution when entering into arrangements with "purported telemedicine companies." Dozens of investigations conducted by OIG revealed various fraud schemes utilized by such telemedicine companies. These inappropriate schemes were targeted at increasing the acceptance and use of telemedicine by paying kickbacks to medical professionals to generate orders and prescriptions for medically unnecessary durable medical equipment, genetic testing, wound care items, or prescription medications, which can result in submissions of fraudulent claims to Medicare, Medicaid and other federal health care programs. According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Medicare fraud costs U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars every year.