Provider of Home Health Care Services Sentenced for Medicaid Fraud
| U.S. Attorney’s Office June 13, 2013 |
NORFOLK, VA—Angie L. Gilchrist, 58, of Suffolk, Virginia, was sentenced today to 33 months in prison, followed by a three year term of supervised release, for defrauding the Virginia Medicaid Program, a health care program for indigent persons that is jointly funded by the federal government and the State of Virginia. She was also ordered to make restitution to the Virginia Medicaid Program in the amount of $294,713.
Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli made the announcement after sentencing by United States District Senior Judge Henry C. Morgan, Jr.
Gilchrist pleaded guilty on February 19, 2013, to health care fraud. According to court documents, Gilchrist owned and operated A-Z Alpha Omega In Home Personal Care Service LLC, a business located in Suffolk that was authorized to provide respite care to Medicaid recipients. Respite care is designed to provide temporary, substitute care for a Medicaid recipient that is normally provided by the family or another unpaid primary caregiver of the recipient. These services are provided on a short-term basis because of the emergency absence or need for routine or periodic relief of the primary caregiver. Between October 2008 and October 2012, Gilchrist filed approximately 385 false and fraudulent claims for reimbursement with the Virginia Medicaid program. These fraudulent claims represented that respite care had been provided by her company to 38 Medicaid recipients, when in fact no such care had been provided. As a result, Gilchrist obtained health care benefit payments in the approximate amount of $294,713 to which she was not entitled.
This case was investigated by the FBI and the Office of the Virginia Attorney General, Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. Assistant United States Attorney Alan M. Salsbury prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.justice.gov/usao/vae.