Home Health & Hospice Week

Charges include fake time sheets.

Twelve people, including two sisters who are home health agency owners, have been indicted in an alleged scheme that bilked Pennsylvania Medicaid of millions.

Sisters Arlinda Moriarty, owner of Moriarty Consultants, Activity Daily Living, and Everyday People Staffing, all in Pittsburgh, and Day-nelle Dickens, owner of Coordination Care, were named in the indictment, reports the Pittsburgh Gazette. Ten of their employees were also indicted, and four others were indicted on charges related to concealing the fraud.

“The indictment sets forth dozens of fraudulent acts by the defendants, including making false claims for services that were never provided, creating fake employees, improperly using consumers’ personal identifying information, and falsifying documentation during state audits of the companies,”

the Department of Justice says in a release. “In some instances, the indictment alleges that the defendants were actually working at other jobs or living out of the area. In other instances, Medicaid claims were submitted for services for consumers who were actually hospitalized, incarcerated, or deceased,” the DOJ says.

The sisters were the targets of a lawsuit brought by the federal government in 2017 alleging false Medicaid billings, the Gazette reports. Moriarty expressed surprise at the time and said she never directed anyone to commit fraud, according to the newspaper.

“When criminals cheat and steal from [home care] programs, they not only steal from the taxpayers, but they steal from the most vulnerable members of our community,” U.S. Attorney Scott Brady says in a release.

In Virginia: A home health agency owner in Virginia has been indicted on Medicaid fraud charges in a $4.5 million scheme, reports NBC 4 News. John Ndunguru, president of Mercy Services of Health in Springfield, is accused of submitting Medicaid claims for patients who were not approved for long-term care.

Prior to the indictment, the attorney general raided Mercy’s offices and seized computers and documents, the news station says. Court documents also allege forged physician signatures, missing documentation, and missing background checks for aides. The agency services about 90 patients and employs about 100 aides, a staffer told NBC 4.

In St. Louis: A home care aide has pleaded guilty to submitting false time sheets to Medicaid for home care services, for times he was actually traveling or working another job. In one instance, Demagio Smith was on a Caribbean cruise, the DOJ says in a release. Five others have already been convicted or pleaded guilty in the case.

“Home health care is a more convenient alternative to skilled nursing facilities, and it saves tax dollars because it is less expensive,” the FBI’s Richard Quinn says in a release. “People who abuse and cheat the system take money away from those who truly need the services.”