A new sense of urgency is shaping the U.S. government's fight against Medicare fraud as the Obama administration strives to sell the public on expanding healthcare to cover uninsured Americans.

Cabinet officials commenting on this week's trio of Medicare fraud crackdowns in Miami and other cities pushed an emerging two-pronged approach, focusing on fraud prevention as well as prosecutions.

The latest indictments -- exposing almost $200 million in Medicare scams involving HIV treatments, physical therapy and diabetic services -- follow a recently announced partnership between the Justice and Health and Human Services departments.

The agencies have expanded criminal ''strike forces'' that existed under the Bush administration, most recently to Detroit, but also have committed about half a billion dollars to fraud prevention efforts this year. They are working on sharing suspicious billing information with Medicare -- an agency notorious for paying claims fast without verifying them -- to help stop fraud and waste.

Experts estimate the huge entitlement program loses at least $60 billion to fraud every year, with Miami-Dade County at the center of the national crisis.

''The Obama administration is committed to turning up the heat on Medicare fraud and employing all the weapons in the federal government's arsenal to target those who are defrauding the American taxpayer,'' HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said during a news conference at the Justice Department with Attorney General Eric Holder.

''But our joint efforts don't just stop at the jailhouse door,'' she said. "Every dollar we can save by stopping fraud can be used to strengthen the long-term fiscal health of Medicare, bring down costs and deliver better service to Medicare beneficiaries.''

The government's job will be anything but easy.

During the past five years, thousands of Medicare fraud offenders have shown that they can outsmart the vulnerable healthcare system for the elderly and disabled. Their weapons: cash kickbacks to Medicare patients, manipulation of medical records to justify bogus charges, and use of different billing codes to get around Medicare's technology to block false claims.

Consider the series of eye-opening criminal cases this week.

On Friday, FBI agents arrested eight Miami-Dade residents on charges of bilking Medicare for $22 million by charging for nurses to treat mostly homebound diabetic patients -- many of whom didn't have the disease or didn't receive the services.

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