Provider of Home Health Care Services Pleads Guilty to $294,000 Medicaid Fraud

NORFOLK, VA—Angie L. Gilchrist, 57, of Suffolk, Virginia, pleaded guilty today in Norfolk federal court to health care fraud.

Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli made the announcement after Gilchrist’s plea was accepted by United States District Senior Judge Henry C. Morgan, Jr.

Gilchrist faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 when she is sentenced on May 22, 2013.

According to a statement of facts filed with her plea agreement, Gilchrist owned and operated A-Z Alpha Omega In-Home Personal Care Service LLC, a business located in Suffolk that was authorized to provide respite care to Medicaid recipients. Respite care is designed to provide temporary, substitute care for a Medicaid recipient that is normally provided by the family or another unpaid primary caregiver of the recipient. These services are provided on a short-term basis because of the emergency absence or need for routine or periodic relief of the primary caregiver. Between October 2008 and October 2012, Gilchrist filed approximately 385 false and fraudulent claims with the Virginia Medicaid program, representing that respite care had been provided by her company to 38 Medicaid recipients, when in fact no such care had been provided. As a result, Gilchrist obtained health care benefit payments in the approximate amount of $294,713 to which she was not entitled.

This case was investigated by the FBI and the Office of the Virginia Attorney General, Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. Assistant United States Attorney Alan M. Salsbury is prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.justice.gov/usao/vae.