Attorney General Ashley Moody’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU), with the assistance of the Oviedo Police Department, Seminole County Sheriff’s Office, Orlando Police Department, and the United States Customs and Border Protection, announced the arrest of Debora Behnke and Suman Bhattacharjee for a Medicaid fraud scheme that stole hundreds of thousands of dollars. Behnke and Bhattacharjee ran Pioneer Medical Transportation LLC and submitted fraudulent claims for nonemergency medical transportation for Medicaid recipients, stealing more than $250,000 from the Medicaid program. According to an MFCU investigation, Behnke and Bhattacharjee regularly billed for trips that did not take place. Additionally, Behnke and Bhattacharjee’s scheme involved signing up vulnerable Medicaid recipients for daily trips across the state in exchange for small but regular payments with no regard for the best interest of the recipient. Behnke and Bhattacharjee then encouraged the recipients to move from coastal-area homes to the Orlando and Kissimmee regions. Pioneer Medical Transportation then billed for the original, longer round trips and at a greater frequency than provided in order to maximize profits.
