A week ago, the Eagle took an extensive look at the sudden fall-off in drug-overdose deaths this year. A half-dozen reports looked at several apparent reasons, circumstances and conditions contributing to the drop.

The widespread opinion is that all of the efforts are having an effect, although no single strategy — be it naloxone, stricter enforcement, community awareness, better rehab opportunities, even prayer — can be seen as a magic cure. Progress comes from a combination of remedies.

Yet another factor has surfaced since we published our findings.

On June 28, top Trump administration officials announced completion of the “largest health care fraud enforcement action in Department of Justice history.”

Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex M. Azar III said criminal charges were filed that week against 165 doctors, nurses and licensed medical professionals, plus 436 nonlicensed professionals, alleging they all took part in health care fraud schemes involving more than $2 billion in false billings.

That’s not all. Of those charged, 162 defendants, including 76 doctors, were charged for their roles in prescribing and distributing opioids and other dangerous drugs. HHS Secretary Azar said that since July 2017, the department has banned 2,700 individuals from participation in Medicare, Medicaid, and all other federal health care programs — including 587 former providers excluded for conduct related to opioid diversion and abuse.

Across Pennsylvania, 16 defendants have been charged for their roles in drug diversion schemes. They include four Western Pennsylvanians — all doctors — charged with various health care fraud and drug diversion schemes, one involving 32,000 dosage units of buprenorphine — brand name Subutex — an opioid used to treat opioid addiction.

On several levels, these arrests constitute a big deal:

They expose and confirm suspicions of widespread fraud in an overbloated, overregulated health care system.

There’s also an equally widespread tolerance of the fraudulent practices — and a culture of complacency among those committing them — that developed sometime before the Trump administration took office in January 2017.

The number of medical professionals charged is particularly significant. Virtually every health care fraud scheme requires a medical professional to be involved for Medicare or Medicaid to pay the fraudulent claims.

The pattern of criminal filings, involving nearly every state, nearly implies that the system itself encourages practitioners to engage in the fraud, with little risk of detection or prosecution — that is, until now.

The criminal filings were driven by Medicaid fraud control units from 30 states — as opposed to Washington-based federal agencies whose rank and file have demonstrated less than wholehearted fidelity to the president. Maybe Trump has found a way to get things done in spite of D.C.-based resistance.

Healthcare fraud and opioid addiction are different symptoms of the same illness — one that touches every corner of our community and nation, exacting a toll in overdose deaths and wasted tax dollars.

Last week’s roundup of perpetrators should send a loud signal that we the people have had enough of it.

—TAH