Personal assistants are arrested for fraud against Medicaid

It’s regrettable that unlicensed personal care assistants who take care of handicapped and elderly persons in their homes sometimes take advantage of the situation and the vulnerability of the disabled patients. A slightly different deviation occurs when these assistants engage in Medicaid fraud by trying to submit time sheets for work not performed. This is what three Louisiana women are accused of doing in connection with their Medicaid-funded jobs as personal assistants to the disabled.

The Louisiana Attorney General, with help from the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office, arrested all three women recently on allegations that each of them submitted timesheets stating that had performed work in the homes of Medicaid recipients on certain specified dates and times. An investigation revealed that each of them was working at other jobs for another personal care agency on the dates and times stated. The women are ages 22, 26, and 55.

The women worked for personal care companies that are established Medicaid providers. Most states to not have stringent job qualifications for these positions. The personal care attendants get paid by submitting their time sheets to the Medicaid provider, and the provider submits the requests to the Medicaid program. In this case, the inconsistencies were discovered.

This may mean that the governmental agencies involved have finally developed database management tools that can automatically cross-reference the wage requests and pull out inconsistent submissions. Alternatively, it may mean that one or more of the women could not keep from talking to co-workers about their scheme. White collar crime like this in Florida is taken seriously and prosecuted aggressively. If you face this kind of a fraud charge your best choice would be to consult quickly with legal counsel to determine the strength of the case and to begin the decision of what strategy to follow in resolving it.

Source: Kknoe.com, “3 Louisiana women arrested on Medicaid fraud charges,” May 17, 2013