Florida Nurse And Mother Of Medicaid Recipient Arrested After Bilking $100,000 From Medicaid

On Monday, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody announced the arrests of a nurse and the mother of a Medicaid recipient for bilking more than $100,000 from Medicaid.

Throughout several months, Myoka Bowens, a licensed practical nurse, worked with a Medicaid recipient’s mother, Jazmin Raulerson, to swindle the Medicaid program by falsifying progress notes for time overseeing a high-risk infant.

Moody said, “Not only did these women scheme to rip off Florida taxpayers, but they also exploited an infant’s illness in the process. I am proud of the work of my Medicaid Fraud Control Unit to uncover their plot to steal more than $100,000 from this taxpayer-funded program and bring these suspects to justice.”

According to the investigation, Bowens provided private duty nursing services to a high-risk infant. Bowens’s employers required daily progress notes to be submitted.

Over the course of several months, Bowens submitted falsified skilled progress notes for reimbursement, causing a loss to the Medicaid program for more than $100,000.

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Meanwhile, Raulerson participated in the fraud by signing and approving the progress notes, as well as clocking in and out for Bowens. Raulerson received several thousands of dollars from Bowens for taking part in the scheme.

Bowens’s employing company, Sonas, hired a private investigation company that obtained photographic evidence proving Bowens’s absence during the scheduled and billed hours.

After gathering the evidence, Sonas terminated Bowens and offered Raulerson another LPN, but Raulerson refused and instead willfully continued the scheme by hiring Bowens under another Medicaid provider company.

Bowens and Raulerson each face one count of Medicaid provider fraud for more than $50,000, a first-degree felony, one count of second-degree grand theft, and one count of money laundering, a third-degree felony.

Attorney General Moody’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit will prosecute this case through an agreement with the State Attorney’s Office for the Fourth Judicial Circuit.

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