Fla. home care firm sued

A Florida corporation and its owner selling fraudulent contracts for home health care services to senior Floridians has been sued by Attorney General Charlie Crist. Clearwater-based Intrust Home Care and its president, Roy F. Fitzgerald, are accused of taking more than $146,000 from several dozen elderly Florida residents despite never contracting or paying for any of the home care services they promised to provide.

The Attorney General’s lawsuit, filed in Leon County Circuit Court, alleges that Intrust and Fitzgerald sold what were purported to be contracts for home care services, such as dressing, laundry, bathing and housekeeping. Investigators determined that Fitzgerald promised the services but never contracted for anyone to actually provide those services, and failed to maintain reserves to pay for the services should they be needed. Intrust routinely imposed a six to 12-month waiting period before the services would be provided, and in at least four instances the victims died before the waiting period had elapsed.

Senior victims in Florida, and others in California, Virginia and Illinois, paid for contracts at annual rates ranging from approximately $700 to more than $7,600. Other services Intrust was supposed to provide included meals, toileting, grooming, excursions and mobility assistance. Contract holders were told falsely that they could order home companions through Intrust.

Although the contracts appeared similar to insurance and home health care contracts, they were not, at the time, regulated by any state agency.