Employee of Local Medicaid Agency Sentenced for Federal Health Care Offenses
| U.S. Attorney’s Office April 09, 2010 |
NEW ORLEANS, LA—MELINDA LANGLEY, age 49, a resident of Houston, Texas, was sentenced today in federal court by U.S. District Judge Mary Ann Vial Lemmon to fifteen (15) months' imprisonment for her role in a conspiracy to commit health care fraud, announced U.S. Attorney Jim Letten. In addition to the term of imprisonment, Judge Lemmon ordered that LANGLEY pay restitution in the amount of $47,717, a special assessment of $1,100, and be placed on three 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 she violate any terms of her supervised release.
According to court documents, on September 9, 2009, LANGLEY was convicted by a federal jury as charged of one count of conspiracy and ten (10) counts of health care fraud. LANGLEY, an employee of A New Beginning of New Orleans, Inc., a Medicaid provider that made claims for personal care services it claimed to have provided to Medicaid recipients, 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.