Jefferson City Man Indicted on Charges of Fraudulently Billing Medicaid for Bail Money

St. Louis, MO—Christopher S. Long was indicted on federal charges of health care fraud involving his false statements to Medicaid regarding hourly home health care services he claimed to have provided during time frames when Long was actually in jail and could not have provided the services, United States Attorney Catherine L. Hanaway announced today.

“As the Medicaid program evolves and provides new options for beneficiaries, we will remain vigilant and continue to prosecute any kind of provider that makes false statements to the program,” said Hanaway.

According to the indictment, Long signed a contract to be a home health care worker on December 16, 2005, and afterwards was approved by Medicaid to provide personal care services to his mother, a Medicaid beneficiary, at her residence.  During 2006, Long signed and submitted numerous “personal care assistance service log sheets” to a home health care agency located in Rolla, MO.  The log sheets documented the “total hours worked” by Long during two week pay periods providing personal care services to his mother.  Long’s log sheets specifically instructed him to indicate any time his mother spent during the pay period in a hospital or nursing home, out of the home setting, to enable the accurate calculation of Medicaid reimbursement.

As alleged in the indictment, Long attempted to defraud the Missouri Medicaid program by falsely representing that he had provided hourly care services to his mother on specific times and dates when he was either in prison or his mother was in the hospital, meaning that no care services were actually provided in the home setting.  The purpose of Long’s scheme was to steal money from the Medicaid program for his personal use, including bail money.

Long, 29, Jefferson City, MO, was indicted by a federal grand jury on four counts of health care fraud.  If convicted, the defendant faces a maximum penalty of ten years in prison and/or fines up to $250,000.

Hanaway commended the investigative work on the case by the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations, and each defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.