The owners of a Central Florida medical transportation company are facing allegations that they fraudulently billed the Medicaid program for more than $275,000.
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According to court documents filed in Seminole County, an investigation by the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit has identified 50-year-old Debora Behnke and 37-year-old Suman Bhattacharjee as the owners of Pioneer Medical Transportation LLC, which contracted with Florida . Medicaid Non-emergency medical transportation providers to take Medicaid recipients to methadone treatment facilities and back to their homes.
According to an arrest warrant for both, the couple submitted false NEMT claims to the Medicaid program between March 8, 2021 and December 31, 2022, totaling $276,377.
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According to the warrant, the Attorney General’s Office first received a complaint about Pioneer Medical Transportation on April 27, alleging that company employees were “paying Medicaid patients to use their services in order to reduce Medicaid costs.” could charge for the transport.”
The complaint alleged that company employees “impersonated the patient or the patient’s family member” so that they could make appointments to use the company’s services.
During an interview, the person who filed the complaint told investigators that Behnke owned the company, while Bhattacharjee — who the report says was a “part-time lover” of Behnke — was in charge of the company.
The tipster told investigators that Bhattacharjee would call insurance companies, acting as the Medicaid recipients themselves or on their behalf, to schedule transportation to and from medical appointments, but that he did not always complete the planned trips while still using Medicaid for profit took into account.
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Investigators say the tipster told them that Bhattacharjee would then pay actual Medicaid recipients whose trips were not completed to ensure their continued use of the company’s services. Investigators say the payments were also intended to provide Medicaid recipients with some income in exchange for using their Medicaid information to bill the program, while not actually providing the transportation.
Investigators say the tipster then told them that many of the Medicaid recipients that Bhattacharjee took advantage of were victims of opioid addiction in methadone programs designed to help them get off the substances.
After a lengthy investigation using Florida Medicaid claims and billing records, medical records of Medicaid recipients, substance abuse treatment center attendance records, law enforcement reports, bank records, cell phone records, witness statements, and other evidence, the OAG concluded that Behnke and Bhattacharjee clearly falsified documents to fraudulently bill the Medicaid program for “services not rendered” and provide “kickbacks” to actual Medicaid recipients in exchange for the fraudulent use of their Medicaid information.
State registry investigators determined they had probable cause to issue arrest warrants for both Behnke and Bhattacharjee. They also obtained search warrants for both of their homes in Oviedo.
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Bhattacharjee was booked into the Seminole County Jail on Wednesday, charged with one count of defrauding Medicaid providers and one count of scheme to defraud. He has since been released on a bond totaling $40,000.
Behnke has yet to be arrested.
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