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Tampa Jury Convicts Health Care Executive In Medicare Fraud Case

Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.
Lottie Watts/WUSF
/
The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

The owner of a home health service agency in Tampa was convicted by a federal jury Friday for her role in a multimillion-dollar health care fraud and money laundering scheme, the Tampa Bay Business Journal reported.

Pilar Garcia Lorenzo was the owner of Gold Care Home Health Services Inc. The company submitted millions of dollars in fraudulent claims to Medicare in late summer 2014 for home health services that were never provided and had not been legitimately prescribed by a physician, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida.

She will be sentenced on Jan. 5.

According to the release, Medicare reimbursed about $2.5 million, and about $2 million of the fraud proceeds were laundered in cash transactions through fictitious shell companies in Hialeah.

Originally founded in December 2006 as an independent grassroots publication dedicated to coverage of health issues in Florida, Health News Florida was acquired by WUSF Public Media in September 2012.