On health-care fraud, the little guys in Florida get jail; big guys get deals 

In March, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced she had nailed someone for Medicaid fraud.

The culprit was a 49-year-old home-health worker from dirt-poor Gadsden County, accused of bilking the state out of $13,000.

For her crime, Melissa Letica Simmons was ordered to spend six months behind bars — and repay all the money she stole from taxpayers.

Six months. For $13,000.

A few years earlier, the state accused three hospitals of bilking the Medicaid system as well … only this time, it involved millions.

Yet no one was criminally prosecuted. Or even ordered to repay all the money. Instead the hospitals settled — without admitting wrongdoing — and repay taxpayers pennies on the dollars.

Source: On health-care fraud, the little guys get jail; big guys get deals – Orlando Sentinel

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