FLORIDA — Two Florida healthcare workers have been arrested for allegedly defrauding Medicaid through a kickback scheme, Attorney General Ashley Moody’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) has announced.
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The MFCU said two Miami-Dade County healthcare workers are accused of paying illegal kickbacks to Medicaid recipients. According to an investigation by MFCU, a mother and her son, Gladys Aracely Gomez, and Edward Exequiel Garcia-Gomez, allegedly paid illegal kickbacks to patients to receive psychosocial rehabilitation services.
Reportedly, their actions defrauded the state Medicaid program of more than $300,000, the MFCU said.
“This mother-son duo used a cunning kickback scheme to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from a taxpayer-funded health care program,” said Moody.
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“My investigators uncovered this massive Medicaid fraud and will help ensure this criminal team faces justice for exploiting taxpayers.”
According to an investigation by MFCU, Gladys Gomez and Edward Garcia-Gomez illegally paid kickbacks to Medicaid recipients to attend psychosocial rehabilitation services. Psychosocial rehabilitation is a therapy service that provides daily medication use, independent living and social-skills training, support to clients and families, housing, and pre-vocational and transitional employment, among other things, all reportedly billable to the Medicaid program.
A witness reportedly claimed that the defendants paid clients to sign progress sheets for the whole week, said the MFCU. The investigation reportedly found that the defendants gave some patients $250 biweekly or $500 monthly in return for attending the rehabilitation sessions.
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Both defendants are charged with Medicaid provider fraud, a first-degree felony. The case will be prosecuted by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, 11th Judicial Circuit.
