MM Curator summary
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[MM Curator Summary]: Both instances involved payments for caregiver services while the supposed recipients of the care were in jail.
Clipped from: https://www.wibw.com/2022/11/03/southeast-kan-women-ordered-pay-restitution-medicaid-fraud/
FILE(MGN)
PARSONS, Kan. (WIBW) – Two women from Labette Co. have been ordered to pay restitution to the state’s Medicaid program after they were found to have been paid while either their caretakers or their patients had been in jail.
Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt says that two women from Southeast Kansas have been sentenced and ordered to pay restitution for crimes against the state’s Medicaid Program.
AG Schmidt indicated that Lavanda E. Duncan, 55, of Parsons, was sentenced on Wednesday, Nov. 2, in Labette Co. District Court by Judge Steve A. Stockard on one felony count of attempted making a false claim to the program. he said she was ordered to pay a total of $2,547.16 in restitution to the program and to serve a year of supervised probation. She pleaded guilty to the charge on Sept. 7.
Schmidt noted that Duncan was found to be a Medicaid beneficiary who attempted to falsely bill the program on behalf of her three sons who served as her personal care attendants. The investigation found she had attempted to get payments on their behalf while they were behind bars in the Labette Co. Jail and unable to provide care for her.
In a second, unrelated case, the AG said Lacinda Morris, 32, of Parsons, was also sentenced on Wednesday by Judge Stockard to pay a total of $9,452.60 in restitution, to serve 18 months of supervised probation and to attend in-patient substance abuse treatment. She pleaded guilty to charges including one felony count of making a false claim to the program and one count of forgery on Aug. 18.
Schmidt indicated that Morris was found to have been working as a personal care attendant for her mother, a Medicaid beneficiary. While her mother was behind bars, Morris had submitted time sheets for payment from the Medicaid program as if she had provided care for her mother at the time.
Senior Assistant Attorney General Eve Kemple of Schmidt’s office prosecuted both cases.