Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, today announced that on July 29, 2022, NICOLE STEINER, formerly known as Nicole Balkas, 32, formerly of Stratford and now residing in Edison, New Jersey, pleaded guilty in Bridgeport federal court to a health care fraud offense that she committed while awaiting sentencing in another health care fraud case.

According to court documents and statements made in court, on April 28, 2021, Steiner pleaded guilty to one count of health care fraud related to her operation of Helping Hands Academy, LLC, in Bridgeport, which provided applied behavior analysis services to children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and was enrolled as a participating provider in the Connecticut Medicaid Program (“Medicaid”). From December 2018 to October 2020, Steiner submitted and caused to be submitted fraudulent claims to Medicaid for applied behavior analysis services that were purportedly provided to Medicaid clients. She submitted claims for dates of service when no applied behavior analysis services of any kind had been provided to the Medicaid clients identified in the claims, and she inflated the number of hours for certain claims even when applied behavior analysis had been provided to the Medicaid clients identified in the claims. Steiner also submitted false Medicaid claims in 2020 using a former employee’s name and performing provider number.

After the Connecticut Department of Social Services...

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