A former administrator at Glen Island Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation in New Rochelle faces prison time after pleading guilty to charges of defrauding the Medicaid program out of $2.2 million, state Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman recently announced.
Eufemia Fe Salomon-Flores pleaded guilty in Westchester County Court to felony counts of second-degree grand larceny and third-degree criminal tax fraud. The 63-year-old Manhattan resident is due to be sentenced on Dec. 6.
An attorney general”™s investigation found the Glen Island nursing home received an inflated Medicaid reimbursement rate over a five-year period because Salomon-Flores exaggerated residents”™ diagnoses, conditions and required treatments when submitting quarterly reports to the state Department of Health. Tipped by an informant, investigators found she routinely reported that residents were receiving suction and oxygen treatments as well as treatments for cancer and infections that were neither required nor given.
Salomon-Flores also committed tax fraud by receiving payments issued to two bogus companies she set up, Premier Health Care Staffing and Phil Am Health Care Professionals. In 2008 alone, her sham companies received more than $307,000 in income that she failed to report on her state tax returns, resulting in a state tax liability of more than $31,000, Schneiderman said.
“Our cash-strapped state and Medicaid program cannot afford fraud, and my office will continue to hold accountable those who rip off taxpayers,” the attorney general said.
The case was handled by lawyers and investigators from the attorney general”™s Medicaid fraud control unit in Pearl River.
