Florida healthcare workers accused of cunning kickback scheme

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.

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.

“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.

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.