Pittsburgh Resident Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy and Health Care Fraud

PITTSBURGH, Pa. – A resident of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty in federal court to one count each of conspiracy to defraud the Pennsylvania Medicaid program and health care fraud, United States Attorney Scott W. Brady announced today.

Tionne Street, 48, pleaded guilty before United States District Judge Cathy Bissoon on November 22, 2019.

During her plea hearing, Street admitted that she was an employee of Moriarty Consultants, Inc. (MCI), one of four related entities operating in the home health care industry.  The other three entities were Activity Daily Living Services, Inc. (ADL), Coordination Care, Inc. (CCI), and Everyday People Staffing, Inc. (EPS).  MCI, ADL, and CCI were approved under the Pennsylvania Medicaid program to offer certain services to qualifying Medicaid recipients (“consumers”), including personal assistance services (PAS), service coordination, and non-medical transportation, among other services.  Between in and around January 2011 and in and around April 2017, MCI, ADL, and CCI, collectively, received more than $87,000,000 in Medicaid payments based on claims submitted for these services, with PAS payments accounting for more than $80,000,000 of the total amount.

During that time, Street admitted that she participated in a wide-ranging conspiracy to defraud the Pennsylvania Medicaid program for the purpose of obtaining millions of dollars in illegal Medicaid payments through the submission of fraudulent claims for services that were never provided to the consumers identified on the claims, or for which there was insufficient or fabricated documentation to support the claims.  As part of the conspiracy, Street admitted that she fabricated timesheets to reflect the provision of in-home PAS care that, in fact, she never provided to consumers.  Some of the fabricated care occurred while Street was working for a different employer.  In total, Street admitted causing the submission of false timesheets for more than a half dozen consumers, resulting in fraudulent Medicaid reimbursements of approximately $70,000.

Judge Bissoon scheduled Street’s sentencing for 10 a.m. on March 17, 2020.

The conspiracy and health care fraud charges each carry a maximum total sentence of not more than 10 years in prison, a fine of $250,000, or both.  Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, the actual sentence imposed would be based upon the seriousness of the offense and the prior criminal history, if any, of the defendant.

To date, a total of sixteen defendants have been charged in connection with this investigation.  Street is the seventh defendant to enter a guilty plea.  The remaining defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Assistant United States Attorneys Eric G. Olshan and Special Assistant United States Attorney Edward Song are prosecuting this case on behalf of the government.  The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General – Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – Office of Inspector General, and United States Postal Inspection Service conducted the investigation of the defendants.