Ohio Officials Charged in $30 Million Medicaid Fraud Scheme Targeting Children

Article excerpt

Two Ohio state employees and two accomplices are facing federal charges for running a $30 million Medicaid fraud ring built on a simple and cold premise: bill the government for children's behavioral health services that were never actually provided. The Justice Department unsealed the indictment Thursday, and investigators didn't leave the defendants' alleged lifestyle to the imagination. Among the seized assets were 14 luxury vehicles, including a Maserati, a Bentley, a McLaren, and a Mercedes, physical proof that someone was converting government health dollars into a personal car collection. The scheme targeted one of the more defenseless corners of the insurance system, programs designed to fund mental health and behavioral care for kids, which prosecutors emphasized in announcing the charges. Healthcare fraud centered on phantom billing is not unusual, but the scale here and the specific targeting of children's services gave prosecutors language about particular egregion that goes beyond a standard financial crime. The involvement of state employees is its own wrinkle, since the defendants had institutional access that made the fraud easier to sustain over time. Federal healthcare fraud cases have accelerated in recent years as the Justice Department has built specialized units to pursue exactly these kinds of Medicaid billing schemes.