Pennsylvania officials announced criminal charges Tuesday against 19 defendants and a Philadelphia-based home care company in an alleged Medicaid fraud scheme tied to more than $4 million. Prosecutors said the case centers on home care services that were billed but never provided.
Colin McDonald said, "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". David Metcalf said aides billed for thousands of hours of services that were never rendered.
David Metcalf on false billing
Metcalf said, "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". He also said one example involved two home health aides and two patients who allegedly caused more than $400,000 in false Medicaid claims.
Officials said Benevolent Home Health was also facing charges. McDonald said, "Used properly by honest citizens, the program allows those with physical ailments to be cared for by those they trust the most". He added, "Infiltrated by greedy and deceitful opportunists, this program becomes a money tree".
Dave Sunday on public safety
Dave Sunday said, "This is more than a financial crime. This is a very dangerous public safety issue and a lot of people who should be receiving help are not receiving it because of this". He also said, "Because no one should be able to rip off the United States or America and get away with it".
Mehmet Oz said, "What we’re exposing today is a diabolical breach of trust in the sacred bond between a patient and care giver". The case shows how a home care program built around trusted caregivers can be taken advantage of through billing for time and visits that never happened, leaving legitimate patients without the help the program was meant to provide.
Pennsylvania Medicaid charges
Officials said they were working to end what they called the systemic exploitation of Medicaid. The announcement did not lay out the specific penalties for the 19 defendants or give the next court step, so the immediate issue is the charge itself and the alleged scale of the billing scheme.
