Miami Physician Who Formerly Owned Clinic Specializing in HIV/AIDS Care Charged With 115 Counts of Medicaid Fraud
Shelley Wolland, a Miami-based physician who owned the now-defunct Sunshine Medical Inc., a clinic that specialized in HIV/AIDS care, on Thursday was charged with 115 counts of Medicaid provider fraud and one count of grand theft, the Miami Herald reports. The state attorney general's office began investigating Wolland after a surprise inspection by state officials found "hundreds of mislabeled and expired drugs paid for by Medicaid" at the clinic, Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth said. He added that inspectors also found "hundreds of prefilled, unlabeled and unpackaged syringes" at the clinic, which closed three months ago. Investigators then began examining Sunshine's billing records and discovered that between January and December 2001, Wolland submitted more than 2,000 false claims to Medicaid for drugs that were not distributed to patients and for procedures that did not occur. "What makes this conduct especially contemptible is that the medications either withheld or diverted were life-sustaining or quality-of-life products used in the treatment of HIV, AIDS and cancer patients," Butterworth said. Each fraud count carries a penalty of up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine (Yanez, Miami Herald, 5/17).
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