The owners of a Central Florida medical transportation company are facing accusations that they fraudulently billed the Medicaid program for more than $275,000.
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According to court records filed in Seminole County, an investigation by the State Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit identified 50-year-old Debora Behnke and 37-year-old Suman Bhattacharjee as the owners of Pioneer Medical Transportation LLC, which was hired by Florida. Medicaid non-emergency medical transportation providers must take Medicaid beneficiaries to methadone treatment facilities and return them to their homes.
According to an arrest warrant for both, the couple billed the Medicaid Program for false NEMT claims between March 8, 2021, and December 31, 2022, totaling $276,377.
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The warrant says the Attorney General’s Office first received a complaint about Pioneer Medical Transportation on April 27, stating that the company’s employees were “paying Medicaid patients to keep them using their services so they could charge of Medicaid for transportation.”
The complaint alleged that company employees “pretended to be the patient or the patient’s family member” to 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 known as Behnke’s “part-time lover” — ran it.
The informant told investigators that Bhattacharjee would call insurance companies, acting as the Medicaid beneficiaries themselves or on their behalf, to schedule transportation to and from medical appointments, but would not always complete scheduled trips while still collecting Medicaid proceeds.
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Investigators say the informant told them that Bhattacharjee would then pay real Medicaid beneficiaries whose trips were not completed to ensure continued use of the company’s services. Investigators say the payments were also intended to provide some income to Medicaid beneficiaries in exchange for using their Medicaid information to bill the program, without actually providing transportation.
Investigators say the informant told them that many of the Medicaid beneficiaries Bhattacharjee was taking advantage of were victims of opioid addiction in methadone programs designed to wean them off substances.
After a lengthy investigation employing Florida Medicaid claims and billing records, Medicaid beneficiary medical records, substance abuse treatment center attendance records, law enforcement reports, bank records, cell phone data, witness statements and other evidence, the OAG concluded that Behnke and Bhattacharjee had clearly falsified documents to fraudulently bill the Medicaid Program for “services that were not provided” and provided “kickbacks” to real Medicaid beneficiaries in exchange for the fraudulent use of their Medicaid information.
State records investigators determined they had grounds to issue arrest warrants for Behnke and Bhattacharjee. They also acquired search warrants for both their homes in Oviedo.
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Bhattacharjee was booked into the Seminole County Jail on Wednesday, charged with one count of Medicaid provider fraud and one count of conspiracy to defraud. He has since been released on a total bond of $40,000.
Behnke has not yet been arrested.
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