Six Health Care Employees Arrested for Medicaid Fraud

Attorney General Bill McCollum announced the arrest of six Manatee County women on charges of Medicaid fraud and organized fraud. The women, all employees of Acute Care Team, Inc., allegedly defrauded the state Medicaid program out of more than $2.6 million in counterfeit billing claims. The case was investigated by authorities with the Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.

"Medicaid is an important resource which provides essential medical care to those who would otherwise be unable to receive it," said Attorney General McCollum. "Any time an organized scheme defrauds this program, countless Floridians are cheated out of valuable assistance."

Arrested today were Jeanne April Ferguson, 55, president of Acute Care; Nancy Ann Wood, 53, chief financial officer; Heidi Rickert, 48, office manager; Andrea K. Suarez, 36, supervising respiratory therapist; Carla J. Camacho, 42, respiratory therapist, and Stephanie L. Nichols, 34, respiratory therapist. A seventh defendant, Cynthia Lee May, chief operating officer, is still at large.

Investigators with the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit began investigating the facility last April after receiving information from the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA). The facility, which provides respiratory therapy to children, was submitting substantial billing claims to the Medicaid program which later could not be verified by the patients' parents. Often, the facility claimed it provided care to patients several times per week. Parents of the children told investigators they only visited the facility once or twice and for much shorter times than were reported. Additionally, other staff at the facility claim they were pressured to bill for patients they never treated.

Each woman was charged with one count of Medicaid fraud, a third-degree felony, and one count of organized fraud, a first-degree felony. If convicted on both counts, each woman could face up to 30 years in prison and fines of $15,000. The case will be prosecuted by the State Attorney's Office for the 12th Judicial Circuit.