Home Health & Hospice Week
Concealing Medicaid Fraud Lands HHA Employee In Prison
A former HHA staffing manager is facing 10 months in prison for allegedly altering records to cover up Medicaid fraud. The sentence follows Lynette Smith’s guilty plea back in July, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Smith was a staffing manager at A Caring Hand Home Health Care Services, Inc. in Suffolk, VA. From January 2008 through October 2011, Smith and the HHA’s owner Janice Holland allegedly carried out a Medicaid fraud scheme, submitting about 900 false claims for respite care services that never occurred. The HHA netted $630,000 for the fraudulent claims.
Then from September 2010 to October 2011, Smith and Holland falsified and altered office records to conceal the false claims submitted to Medicaid. The scheme involved a total of 12 other staff members. Holland pled guilty to alteration of records, health care fraud and aggravated identity theft, and she’ll face sentencing on Jan. 22, 2013.
Home Health & Hospice Week
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