The owner of a Suffolk health care business has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges that she falsified records to receive Medicaid reimbursements.

Janice W. Holland, 41, was indicted on one count of health care fraud, 31 counts of making false statements relating to health care matters, one count of alteration of records and two counts of aggravated identity theft.

If convicted, Holland could spend the rest of her life in prison.

Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli made the announcement after the indictment was unsealed following Holland’s arrest.

According to the indictment, Holland owned and operated A Caring Hand Home Health Care Services Inc., a business located in Suffolk that was authorized to provide respite care to Medicaid recipients.

According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s office, Holland is accused of filing about 1,100 fraudulent claims with the Virginia Medicaid program, representing that respite care had been provided by her company to 30 Medicaid recipients, when in fact no such care had been provided.

She allegedly filed these claims using, without authority, the recipients’ names, dates of birth and Medicaid identification numbers.

As a result, Holland allegedly obtained payments to the tune of $700,000, to which she was not entitled. She also altered and falsified her office records to conceal her false billings, according to the press release.

The office was located at 813 W. Washington St. The Federal Bureau of Investigations in November confirmed it was conducting an investigation into the business after News-Herald inquiries.

Several employees of the business in November claimed their pay had been spotty or nonexistent for several weeks. (See related story) They said their paychecks had been delayed, checks bounced, or the checks simply never came. One employee said she was sometimes asked to wait until the next day before cashing her check.

The case also was investigated by the Office of the Virginia Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, which in November would “neither confirm nor deny the existence or nonexistence” of an investigation into the business.