Exclusive: U.S. coronavirus stimulus went to some healthcare providers facing criminal inquiries

FILE PHOTO: Oklahoma National Guardsmen wait to sanitize a residents room during a decontamination mission at a longterm care facility, amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in McAlester, Oklahoma, U.S. April 22, 2020. REUTERS/Nick Oxford/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Eager to bolster the healthcare system during the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. government last month sped $30 billion in stimulus payments to most healthcare providers that billed Medicare last year.

That speed resulted in taxpayers' money flowing to some companies and people facing civil or criminal fraud investigations, according to defense lawyers and others representing more than a dozen firms and people facing such inquiries.