Local Medicaid Agency Employee Sentenced to Prison for Federal Health Care Offenses
| U.S. Attorney’s Office December 18, 2009 |
NEW ORLEANS, LA—QUEBAN LEE, age 32, a resident of New Orleans, was sentenced yesterday in federal court by U.S. District Judge Mary Ann Vial Lemmon. LEE was sentenced to 21 months’ imprisonment, announced U.S. Attorney Jim Letten. In addition to the term of imprisonment, Judge Lemmon ordered that LEE pay restitution in the amount of $27,814, a special assessment of $800 and be placed on three (3) years of supervised release following the term of imprisonment, during which time the defendant will be under federal supervision and risks an additional term of imprisonment should he violate any terms of his supervised release.
According to court documents on March 19, 2009, LEE pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and seven counts of health care fraud. According to the factual basis, LEE was an employee of A New Beginning of New Orleans, Inc., a Medicaid provider, which made claims for Personal Care Services it claimed to have provided to Medicaid recipients. LEE created false documentation causing Medicaid to pay for services that were not rendered.
The case was investigated by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, and the Louisiana Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Patrice Harris Sullivan, Jordan Ginsberg and G. Dall Kammer.