Women who ran nursing homes face charges of $2.75 million Medicaid fraud

In the latest example of reimbursement fraud in Florida, authorities arrested the leaders of a nursing home management company Tuesday for allegedly defrauding Medicaid of more than $2.75 million.

Between January 2006 and March 2012, CEO Maxcine Darville and Assistant CEO Joanne Carter misused Medicaid funds for personal expenses including their mortgage payments and cell phone bills, according to the state attorney general's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.

Darville and Carter ran the Council on Aging of Florida, a for-profit operator with long-term care facilities in four locations. The Council on Aging of Florida is unrelated to the non-profit seniors advocacy group known as the Florida Council on Aging.

The women have been released on bond and deny the charges, according to their attorneys.

In November, a U.S. district court judge sentenced the owner of a Florida assisted living facility to 15 months in prison for his role in a $205 million Medicare fraud scheme involving sham mental health providers.