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United States Attorney's Office Alexandria Newport News Norfolk Richmond United States Attorney Check Rosenberg |
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Jim Rybicki Web Address: www.usdoj.gov/usao/vae |
April 25, 2008 |
Medicaid Provider Sentenced to Jail on Charges of Heath Care Fraud |
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Washington, D.C. – A former Medicaid provider, Leonard H. Young, has been sentenced to prison for billing Medicaid for over $211,000 worth of services that he did not provide, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor, Patrick Doyle, Regional Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, and Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, announced today. Young, 57, of Temple Hills, Maryland, pled guilty on October 30, 2007, and was sentenced yesterday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia before the Honorable Richard J. Leon on one count of Health Care Fraud. Judge Leon sentenced the defendant to one year and one day of incarceration, followed by two years of supervised release, with six months to be served in home confinement. In addition, the defendant was ordered to perform 400 hours of community service, and to pay $173,491 in restitution to Medicaid. The defendant had already agreed to forfeit $37,950. According to the Statement of Offense signed by the defendant, Medicaid is a health care benefit program, jointly funded by the federal government and the District of Columbia, created to provide medical assistance for individuals and families with low incomes and a lack of financial resources. Medicaid will pay companies to transport Medicaid recipients to medical appointments, health care services, and day treatment programs, if the transportation requests were authorized in advance, and if the transportation services were actually provided. The defendant, Leonard H. Young, was the owner of transportation companies and was a Medicaid provider. At least from January 2003 to August 2007, Young submitted claims for approximately 6,660 transportation services which were not provided. Medicaid, and then law enforcement, reviewed the top fifteen Medicaid recipients whose names were most often used as the subject of purported transportation services billed by Young. Medicaid and law enforcement agents found that the Medicaid recipients were not always transported, as claimed, in that: they did not attend the day treatment programs on the days of the claimed transportation services; they were transported by a caseworker and not Young’s company; they remained "in-patient" at a hospital or nursing home and did not require transportation in order to receive medical service; or they did not use the transportation service for some other reason. Using these false claims, Young falsely billed Medicaid and fraudulently received $211,441.50 from Medicaid.In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Taylor, Special Agent in Charge Doyle, and Assistant Director in Charge Persichini commended Special Agents Gregg C. Domroe from the FBI, Special Agent Troy Yeager from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services - Office of Inspector General, and the investigators of the Medical Assistance Administration (D.C. Medicaid). In addition, they commended Legal Assistant April Peeler and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Diane G. Lucas and Virginia Cheatham. |
