By: Carol Gentry
Source:Florida Health News
WellCare Health Plans Inc., Florida’s largest Medicaid HMO contractor, was charged with felony health fraud today and has agreed to pay $80 million to defer prosecution, U.S. Attorney A. Brian Albritton announced.
The Tampa company used a subsidiary to hide $40 million that belonged to Florida Medicaid and Florida Healthy Kids, he said. The other $40 million is considered a “civil forfeiture.”
Albritton attributed the motive to “greed, the desire for more profit.” He declined to say how high in the company the knowledge of the fraud went.
The top three executives at WellCare at the time the investigation began two years ago all resigned shortly after it became public: President, CEO and Chairman Todd Farha, CFO Paul Behrens and General Counsel Thaddeus Bereday.
