Former Wellcare employee pleads guilty to fraud

TAMPA, Florida (Reuters) - A former employee of a Wellcare Health Care Plans Inc subsidiary pleaded guilty to defrauding the Florida Medicaid program out of more than $20 million, prosecutors said on Monday.

The U.S. Attorney's office in Tampa said Gregory West, 50, pleaded guilty to submitting false and fraudulent expense information to the state agency that runs the Medicaid program.

West faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, the U.S. attorney's office said in a statement.

The case was part of an ongoing investigation by the FBI and other agencies, the prosecutor's statement said.

WellCare, which administers Medicare and Medicaid programs for state agencies, has been under a cloud since last October, when federal and state agents raided the company's Tampa headquarters. The scope of the probe has been unclear.

In August, WellCare said a $35.2 million payment it made to U.S. authorities related to accounting errors in its Florida Medicaid behavioral health contracts, but that it was not a settlement. It said the payment does not include any penalties that may be imposed against it.

Medicaid is a state-administered, U.S. health care program for low income individuals and families.

(Reporting by Robert Green, Editing by Michael Christie)