Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that NICOLE STEINER, formerly known as Nicole Balkas, 33, formerly of Stratford, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer in New Haven to 36 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for health care fraud offenses.
According to court documents and statements made in court, Steiner owned and operated Helping Hands Academy, LLC, in Bridgeport, which provided applied behavior analysis services to children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and was 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 (DSS), which administers the Medicaid program in Connecticut, terminated Helping Hands Academy as a provider, Steiner made...
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