Home Health & Hospice Week

• Medicare isn't the only place where home care fraud is giving legit providers a bad name. In Pennsylvania, nine suspects recently conspired in $1 million worth of insurance fraud claims, the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office says.

Two suspects, Judi Grate and Bianca Bucano, masterminded a plan where over 10 years they submitted forged documents to insurance companies claiming they and others furnished home care services when they did not, authorities say.

Grate, Bucano, and seven other suspects, some of whom were related to the two women, claimed they had fictitious problems like fibromyalgia or car accident injuries that required home care.Then Grate and Bucano submitted claims to insurance companies ranging from AIG to Genworth Life Insurance Company to Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, as well as state compensation programs, the AG says.

Investigators found out that despite Grate being unemployed, she purchased a time-share and three Cadillacs, the AG says.