WASHINGTON — A federal strike force has charged 91 people, including a hospital president, doctors, and nurses, with Medicare fraud — $429 million in allegedly false billings.

Attorney General Eric Holder said the case reveals an alarming trend in efforts to steal billions of taxpayer dollars for personal gain. Holder called the action one of the largest such law enforcement efforts of its kind.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said that in addition to the criminal charges, her agency used new authority under the Obama administration’s health care law to stop future payments to many of the health care providers suspected of fraud.

The enforcement effort focused on Medicare schemes in Baton Rouge, La.; Brooklyn, N.Y.; Chicago; Dallas; Houston; Los Angeles; and Miami.

In Houston, a federal indictment charged the president of an unnamed hospital with participating with six other people in $158 million in fraudulent billings for community mental health services.

In Dallas, two doctors and two registered nurses were charged with participating in over $103 million in false billings. In Brooklyn, a doctor and four chiropractors allegedly participated in $23 million in false billings.