TALLAHASSEE, Fla., March 10 —Attorney General Ashley Moody’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit today announced the arrest of a registered behavior technician. According to an investigation by the MFCU and the Hialeah Police Department, Greter Brito Acosta defrauded the Florida Medicaid program out of more than $119,000 for falsifying documentation and receiving money for services not rendered.
Attorney General Ashley Moody said, “This defendant falsified service records and billed for services not provided to steal more than $100,000 from taxpayers. My Medicaid Fraud Control Unit put an end to this scheme, and now the defendant will have to answer for her crimes.”
The investigation shows that Acosta claimed to provide care for two minors who received Medicaid. Instead of providing the registered behavior technician services though, Acosta would visit the homes of the recipients, log in via a cellphone application to verify the visit, turn off the GPS function of the cellphone and leave. Hours later, Acosta returned to the residence, turned the GPS function of the cellphone back on and logged out of the application, making it appear as though the defendant stayed at the residency for hours.
Acosta bribed the recipient’s parents with monetary kickbacks to go along with the falsified documentation, progress reports and more. The investigation also revealed that Acosta originally paid someone to fraudulently take the defendant’s registered behavior technician certification exam.
Acosta is charged with one count of Medicaid fraud, a first-degree felony.
This case will be prosecuted by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office.
Source: Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody
There doesn’t seem to be any mention of prosecuting the recipient’s parents as co-conspirators. Did they cut a deal to testify against the technician in exchange for any charges against them being dropped?