TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and the Leon County Sheriff’s Office arrested a home health aide for neglecting a disabled adult and defrauding the Florida Medicaid program. Vanesa Cainion, 50, allegedly failed to provide home health care services to the disabled adult and submitted false progress notes causing the Medicaid program to reimburse more than $1,000 for services never provided.
On six separate occasions, Cainion allegedly claimed to provide services to a victim in Havana when the defendant actually traveled out of town to places including Orlando, Sebring and Tallahassee. As part of the investigation, the MFCU obtained evidence of store receipts, a bank slip, hotel receipts and rental agreements that clearly shows the defendant not in Gadsden County providing care, supervision and services ordered by a physician.
Cainion faces one count of Medicaid provider fraud for $10,000 or less, a third-degree felony, and six counts of neglect of a disabled adult, third-degree felonies. If convicted, Cainion faces up to 35 years in prison and $36,000 in fines and restitution. The State Attorney’s Office for the Second Judicial Circuit will prosecute this case.
The Florida Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit investigates and prosecutes providers that intentionally defraud the state’s Medicaid program through fraudulent billing practices. Medicaid fraud essentially steals from Florida’s taxpayers. From Jan. 2011 to the present, Attorney General Bondi’s MFCU has obtained more than $700 million in settlements and judgments. Additionally, the MFCU investigates allegations of patient abuse, neglect, and exploitation in facilities receiving payments under the Medicaid program. In 2017, the MFCU was awarded the Inspector General’s Award for Excellence in Fighting Fraud, Waste and Abuse. This award is presented annually to the nation’s top MFCU by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General.
