PHILADELPHIA - More than a dozen people and a home care agency in Philadelphia face federal charges for allegedly conspiring to defraud the Pennsylvania Medicaid program, according to United States Attorney David Metcalf.
What we know:
"Today we are announcing criminal charges against 19 defendants for fraudulent home healthcare schemes that targeted Pennsylvania’s Medicaid program and resulted in over 4 million dollars of fraud," said Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald on Tuesday.
Investigators say the accused home health aides billed for thousands of hours of services that were never provided.
The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office described the impact as "deep" and "wide-ranging." Officials say the Medicaid program is designed to let trusted friends or relatives care for elderly or disabled people at home, but investigators allege the system was "systematically taken advantage of."
One example cited involved two home health aides and two patients who allegedly caused more than $400,000 in false Medicaid claims.
"Across these cases we have home care services billed that were not rendered by aides that were dead, that were in prison, that were selling drugs. Aides that were billing over 24 hours a day repeatedly for a year," said U.S. Attorney David Metcalf.
Investigators say the Philadelphia-based company Benevolent Home Health is also facing charges. Officials described the arrest of the company’s...
PHILADELPHIA - More than a dozen people and a home care agency in Philadelphia face federal charges for allegedly conspiring to defraud the Pennsylvania Medicaid program, according to United State...