Toledo couple indicted for fraudulent medical care scheme

A federal grand jury in Toledo, Ohio returned a four-count indictment today charging Sherry-Ann Jenkins, age 55, and Dr. Oliver H. Jenkins, age 57, both formerly of Ottawa Hills, Ohio, on one count each of conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, and health care fraud in connection with their development and operation of the Toledo Clinic Cognitive Center from approximately 2013 through 2016.

According to the indictment filed for this case, from November 2013 to March 2016, Dr. Sherry-Ann Jenkins and Dr. Oliver Jenkins operated a business known as the Toledo Clinic Cognitive Center to diagnose and treat patients with cognitive disorders, particularly those suspected of suffering from dementia and Alzheimer ’s disease. The Center would later become a formal part of the Toledo Clinic.  Dr. Oliver Jenkins was to serve as the Cognitive Center’s Medical Director, and Dr. Sherry-Ann Jenkins would serve as the Center’s Director, responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations. Dr. Sherry-Ann Jenkins had no clinical education, training, or certification. Defendant Sherry-Ann Jenkins had no medical background, affiliation, or licenses to provide medical care of any type.

Immediately following the opening of the Cognitive Center in 2014, Dr. Sherry-Ann Jenkins began performing as a fully qualified and licensed physician or psychologist.  She began assessing, diagnosing, and treating patients for perceived cognitive disorders. She would often order PET scans, which she was unqualified to do, for her patients, and then used the scan results to diagnose a patient with a cognitive disorder. She would then bill these patients for her time as a physician using Dr. Oliver Jenkins National Provider Identifier (NPI) number. Dr. Oliver Jenkins never saw these patients for cognitive care.

The defendants never disclosed that Dr. Sherry-Ann Jenkins was neither trained nor licensed to provide any type of medical care or that Dr. Oliver Jenkins, who was licensed to provide medical care, was rarely present.

Dr. Sherry-Ann Jenkins billed patients and federal health care benefits programs, Medicare and Medicaid, for services for which she was not eligible to bill, were unnecessary, or never performed, and made it appear that Dr. Oliver Jenkins was the rendering provider.

An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt.  A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

If convicted, each defendant’s sentence will be determined by the Court after review of factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal records, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense and the characteristics of the violation.  In all cases, the sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum and in most cases it will be less than the maximum.

The investigation preceding the indictment was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Toledo, Ohio, the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General in Cleveland, Ohio, the Ohio Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, and the Ohio State Medical Board.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Gene Crawford and Brian McDonough.