Eight people have been charged in Pennsylvania in connection with separate alleged Medicaid fraud schemes that authorities believe resulted in losses of more than $260,000, according to Attorney General Dave Sunday.
The charges were filed as part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s annual National Health Care Fraud Takedown, a coordinated nationwide enforcement action aimed at alleged Medicare and Medicaid fraud schemes worth approximately $6.5 billion.
According to the Office of Attorney General, the cases are the result of various investigations by the agency’s Medicaid Fraud Control Section.
Kyania Townes, 40, of Philadelphia, and Takisha Armstrong, 38, of Philadelphia, have been charged in separate cases with providing fake time records while working as personal care assistants, resulting in alleged Medicaid losses of approximately $180,000.
According to investigators, Townes submitted time entries totaling about $108,344 for home care services that coincided with shifts she worked at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Jefferson Hospital, making Medicaid services impossible to deliver as claimed.
According to prosecutors, Armstrong submitted overlapping time entries for various Medicaid recipients, forcing AmeriHealth to pay nearly $70,332 for services that investigators believe were never provided.
Prosecutors also charged Ghada Mahjoub, 54, of Jenkintown, with billing for more than 500 hours of services provided concurrently to two children in different locations and submitting falsified documentation for approximately $9,845 in uncompleted services.
The remaining defendants, Samantha Hall, 34, of York; Jennifer Coleman, 51, of York; Edward Green, 50, of Philadelphia; Teresa Geiger, 47, of Apollo; and Shaquil Veney, 32, of Philadelphia, face charges stemming from separate investigations into allegations of billing or submitting time entries for services not rendered. According to the Attorney General’s Office, the defendants are charged with Medicaid fraud, theft by deception, and tampering with public data.
The cases are being prosecuted by attorneys from the Office of Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Section as part of a nationwide enforcement initiative.
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