Our nation's healthcare system is heavily dependent on nursing staff. In fact, there's no way our system could run without nurses. From Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) to Registered Nurses (RNs) to Nurse Practitioners (NPs), trained and qualified nurses make the delivery of healthcare work.
With that known, a fraud scheme that rakes in millions by arranging for the issuance of fake nursing credentials is particularly egregious. These schemes don't just steal money; they put people's lives in very real danger. And yet this is precisely what a Florida-based scam has done, until a federal investigation put a halt to the multi-million-dollar scam that largely targeted Florida's Haitian immigrant population.
In spring of 2021, a man visits a small storefront in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He tells the woman at the desk – the business owner– that he wants a nursing degree.
What happens next, captured on undercover video, helps unravel one of the largest healthcare fraud schemes in recent U.S. history, operating heavily in South Florida’s tight-knit Haitian immigrant networks.
The con secretly recruited and collected money from people who wanted to buy, not earn, nursing diplomas.
Imagine the bad results that could ensue from this. At least, in this case, someone came forward.
Isaac Bledsoe is a federal Special Agent in Charge of the Inspector General’s Miami office at Health and Human Services. He says his agency got onto the fraud through a tip.
“So believe it or not, we had an individual whose family member had reached out to them, asked if they could borrow somewhere around $16,000, that if they had the money, there's a school in South Florida that will give them a nursing diploma,” Bledsoe recently told Full Measure, in explaining the scheme.
Will give them a nursing diploma. Just like that. Real nurses go through rigorous training, including classroom and clinical work. By the time one can become a Nurse Practitioner, who in most states can operate independently, write patient orders and prescriptions, and pretty much act as a doctor in all but name, there are thousands of hours sunk into attaining that title. But these scammers were arranging for certifications for anyone who walked in.
“So we started off with an undercover immediately, where we had an undercover reach out to one of these schools in South Florida, put themselves out as an individual who has no healthcare background but looking to buy, wants to be a nurse, looking to buy a nursing diploma and ‘what can they do?’”
The video shows the undercover agent talking to fraudster Geralda Adrien about buying a nursing degree with no training or classes required.
“It depends on how ready you are,” Adrien tells the agent who is posing as a wannabe nurse. “Because if you’re ready to go now, I have a way of getting you tested in a school in New York. It is the easiest state for processing. You don’t have to go to New York, you can test here [Florida] but you just get processed through the board of New York.”
43 people involved with the ring have been charged. The ones who have been tried to date have been convicted and sentenced to four to six years in prison. These people sold as many as 15,000 fake degrees to "nurses," and many of those fake nurses have now vanished into the system.
Think on that. A fraud like this isn't just stealing money. It's stealing the health and possibly the lives of patients, all across the United States. We may never know the true scope of this fraud or how many fake nurses are out there, right now, working in hospitals, clinics, and care facilities. We can hope that, because of the nature of their fake certifications, they are exposed sooner or later due to sheer incompetence, but what damage might they do in the meantime?
This is no ordinary fraud scheme. Fortunately, this one, at least, has been shut down, and the accused perps are paying the price.
Editor’s Note: The American people overwhelmingly support President Trump’s law and order agenda.
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