Attorney General Ashley Moody’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit announced the arrest of Hillsborough County resident Caridad Abreu Gonzalez for Medicaid fraud. Abreu Gonzalez worked as a direct-service worker providing personal-support services to disabled adults under the Medicaid program. The investigation revealed that Abreu Gonzalez falsified time sheets and reported more than 800 hours of services never provided—causing more than $13,000 in overpayments.
Attorney General Ashley Moody said, “This care provider unconscionably submitted false time sheets for support services for disabled adults, unjustly enriching herself for more than 800 hours of services never provided. Medicaid fraud not only hurts the Medicaid program, it steals from Florida taxpayers, and this defendant’s scheme caused more than $13,000 in overpayments from Medicaid.”
An investigation by Attorney General Moody’s MFCU revealed that Abreu Gonzalez regularly provided personal-support services to multiple disabled adults, including one client functioning as a 3-year-old. Personal-support services help Medicaid recipients with daily activities, including eating, bathing, dressing, personal hygiene and more. The investigation revealed that instead of reporting an accurate count of hours to Medicaid under the group reimbursement rate, Abreu Gonzalez falsified hours both to bill the higher individual reimbursement rate and to inflate total hours worked.
Abreu Gonzalez faces one count of Medicaid-provider fraud and one count of scheme to defraud, both third-degree felonies. The case will be prosecuted by Attorney General Moody’s Office of Statewide Prosecution.
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