{"id":135606,"date":"2026-01-28T23:14:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T23:14:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/135606\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T23:14:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T23:14:26","slug":"central-florida-man-and-woman-charged-in-medicaid-fraud-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/135606\/","title":{"rendered":"Central Florida man and woman charged in Medicaid fraud scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the suspects could face 30 years in prison if found guilty of running up $65K in bogus Medicaid claims.<\/p>\n

A Central Florida man and woman are facing charges connected to a Florida Medicaid fraud scheme.<\/p>\n

Attorney General James Uthmeier<\/a> announced Wednesday that Alexander McKinnie and Kara Morrison are suspected of submitting tens of thousands of dollars in Medicaid charges related to gasoline reimbursements for non-emergency medical transportation trips that never happened.<\/p>\n

McKinnie was arrested by the Orange County Sheriff\u2019s Office while Morrison was apprehended by the Hillsborough County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

\u201cMedicaid fraud is a clear example of theft from taxpayers,\u201d Uthmeier said in a news release<\/a>. \u201cIn Florida, our Medicaid Fraud Control Unit<\/a> will safeguard public funds and aggressively pursue anyone who exploits these programs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Uthmeier\u2019s investigators launched a probe and determined McKinnie ran up bills to Medicaid that amounted of more than $65,000 for services that were never delivered. Morrison added on another $7,000 in fraudulent reimbursement claims.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The charges against McKinnie include Medicaid provider fraud exceeding $50,000 and one count of organized scheme to defraud, both first-degree felonies. The charges carry a maximum prison sentence of 30 years along with a $10,000 fine.<\/p>\n

Morrison, meanwhile, has been charged with Medicaid provider fraud of less than $10,000 and organized scheme to defraud. Those charges are third-degree felonies that could bring a maximum of five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors in Florida\u2019s 18th Judicial Circuit will handle the case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the suspects could face 30 years in prison if found guilty of running up $65K in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[66436,66437,8232,147,66438,28,30,29,4260,66439,13120,16838,66440],"class_list":["post-135606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-18th-judicial-circuit-of-florida","tag-alexander-mckinnie","tag-attorney-general","tag-central-florida","tag-defraud","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-james-uthmeier","tag-kara-morrison","tag-medicaid","tag-medicaid-fraud-control-unit","tag-medicaid-provider-fraud"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}