Nursing Home owner arrested for $395,000 in Medicaid fraud, Miami-Dade

(BMLTV) TALLAHASSEE, Fla. October 18,  2013 – Miami-Dade nursing home owner Julius Ast was arrested today by the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and the Miami-Dade Police Department for allegedly using the billing names of four non-existent businesses to submit fraudulent invoices to his business, Pines Nursing Home, which were then paid with Medicaid funds. 

This fraudulent scheme ultimately resulted in more than $395,000 in payments to Julius Ast. He is charged with one count of Medicaid fraud, one count of grand theft, and one count of organized fraud, all first-degree felonies.

“Thanks to our partnership with the Agency for Health Care Administration and the Miami-Dade Police Department, we were able to stop this fraudulent billing scheme," stated Attorney General Pam Bondi. "We will continue to protect Florida’s Medicaid program."

Allegedly, Ast recorded forty-seven fraudulent operating expense charges and submitted the cost report to the Agency for Health Care Administration. Ast allegedly then wrote checks to these businesses to “pay” the expense charges when in reality he was paying himself. The Agency for Health Care Administration referred this case to the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit for further investigation.

If convicted, Ast faces up to 90 years in prison and more than $1.9 million in fines. The case is being prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Office of Statewide Prosecution.