The 107 people charged Wednesday include doctors, nurses and other health care professionals in seven cities: Miami, Tampa, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles and Baton Rouge for Medicare fraud.

In addition, the government has suspended payments to 52 provider organizations the individuals are associated with. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the operation, including the arrests and the cutoff of payments, is part of an effort to get ahead of fraud instead of relying on the old “pay-and-chase” model.