An Alabama medical provider will pay $300,000 in a settlement reached Wednesday after the U.S. Department of Justice brought charges that it billed Medicaid for services that were never actually performed.
The civil suit alleged that New Life Center for Change, Inc., doing business as Teen University, and its owner, Alfonza Smith, 72, of Smiths Station, Alabama, billed Alabama Medicaid for Basic Living Skills services for at-risk children that were not actually rendered.
According to a complaint filed against the center in January, Teen University routinely billed Alabama Medicaid for two hours of individual Basic Living Skills services worth $112 and one hour of group BLS services worth $16 for each resident in its care. But the complaint alleged the provider did not conduct the majority of these services.
It further alleged that Teen University fabricated notes from BLS sessions that never happened once it came under investigation by the Alabama Attorney General Medicaid Fraud Control Unit,
“Protecting the integrity of Medicaid and ensuring that vulnerable children receive the services they are promised are among our highest priorities,” said United States Attorney Thomas Govan. “When providers bill for care that was never delivered, they waste taxpayer dollars and betray the trust placed in them. I want to thank the Alabama Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Office of Inspector General for their exceptional work and...
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