Woodbridge Woman Sentenced to 51 Months for Defrauding Medicaid of Nearly $1 Million

ALEXANDRIA, VA—Yanick Pierre, 51, of Woodbridge, Va., was sentenced today to 51 months in prison, followed by a three-year term of supervised release, for fraudulently billing Medicaid nearly $1 million from August 2008 to May 2010.

Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Ken Cuccinelli, Attorney General of Virginia; and James W. McJunkin, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, made the announcement after sentencing by United States District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema.

Pierre was convicted by a federal jury on Sept. 8, 2011. According to court documents, Pierre was the office manager and office administrator for First Call Home Health, a home health care business that provided home health aides and private duty nursing care to individuals so they may remain at home rather than in a hospital or nursing facility. First Call received payment for its home health services provided to Medicaid-eligible individuals through the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services (DMAS), which is responsible for paying medical service producers for care and services received by Medicaid recipients in Virginia.

Beginning in 2008, Pierre began submitting false claims to a DMAS intermediary for home health services to Medicaid recipients when she knew the services had not been provided. To cover up the fraud, Pierre enlisted First Call Home Health employees and family members of Medicaid recipients to fabricate nursing time sheets to corroborate the fraudulent billing. In total, the attempted loss attributed to the fraudulent billing by Pierre was approximately $979,000. Of that amount, First Call received $698,434.47. The court also entered a restitution order and a forfeiture order against Pierre in that amount.

This case was investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office and the Virginia Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. Assistant United States Attorney Timothy D. Belevetz and Special Assistant United States Attorney Steven W. Grist of the Virginia Attorney General’s Office are prosecuting 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. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov or on https://pcl.uscourts.gov.