ALEXANDRIA, VA—The owners of a Woodbridge, Virginia-based home health care business have been convicted by a federal jury in Alexandria, Virginia, for submitting numerous false claims to Medicaid for reimbursement for services they did not provide.
Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Ken Cuccinelli, Attorney General of Virginia; and Debra Evans Smith, Acting Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, made the announcement after the verdict was accepted by United States District Judge Claude M. Hilton.
Irvine Johnston King, 46, and Aisha Rashidatu King, 40, of Woodbridge, were convicted of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison; 22 counts of health care fraud, which each carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison; and two counts of aggravated identity theft, which carry a consecutive mandatory penalty of two years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for March 22, 2013.
According to court records and evidence at trial, the Kings owned and operated Bright Beginnings Healthcare Services, a business that provided in-home personal and respite care and private duty nursing services to Medicaid-eligible individuals. From at least March 2008 through June 2011, the Kings defrauded Medicaid by submitting false claims to Medicaid for services that were not provided, providing fabricated documentation in connection with an audit, and instructing an employee to lie to Medicaid about claims billed by Bright Beginnings. In addition, the Kings instructed an employee to convince a patient’s mother to lie to Medicaid regarding the false claims and asked the parent of a patient to sign blank Medicaid time sheets that were used as a basis to bill Medicaid for services that the Kings knew had not been performed.
The Kings also used—without lawful authority to do so—the name, date of birth, and insurance identification number of a patient on claims seeking reimbursement from Medicaid.
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