TALLAHASSEE, Fla.––Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and the Suwannee County Sherriff’s Office today arrested a North Florida man for allegedly using personal identification of disabled adults in a fraud scheme. Jared Austin Combee, 31, of McAlpin, allegedly falsified timesheets for services Combee never performed.
The MFCU investigation revealed that Combee falsified progress notes to his employer, Building Dreams, for services not rendered and left two disabled adults without care, supervision, and services that the physician ordered. From the falsified progress notes, Combee received more than $2,000 and defrauded Medicaid out of more than $4,000. Combee’s claimed service dates and times for the disabled adults directly conflicted with the times Combee worked at Advanced Auto Parts, the defendants second job.
Combee faces one count of organized fraud and two counts of criminal use of personal identification information of a disabled adult, all third-degree felonies. The State Attorney’s Office for the Third 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 $794 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.
