Sharon Johnson was the owner of a company approved to facilitate and provide home-healthcare aid for Medicaid-reimbursed services in a group home. A group home which happened to be her house. A 1,325 square foot home. While this seems cramped for full time Medicaid care facility, it didn’t matter. Johnson only intended to run a Medicaid fraud scheme and you don’t need space to do that!
Court records indicate that between 2014 and 2021, Johnson signed up several clients without their knowledge or consent to receive personal-care services and used her Parker Lane address in Chester as an unlicensed group home for up to a half-dozen of her clients, plus herself and an employee of her company. Only a fraudster would bill Medicaid for taking care of herself, and pocket the reimbursement funds!
Johnson submitted falsified documents for 14 of her clients to receive personal-care services. Those documents included purported timesheets from her employees documenting their work on the services, when in fact, those employees had no knowledge the timesheets were submitted. To execute the fraud scheme, Johnson created online patient portal accounts in the names of her patients and then assumed their identities to approve billing requests. Despite the fact that no healthcare services were provided.
Johnson had some other devious business practices. To obtain control of her patients’ finances, Johnson submitted fraudulent documents, including a “Medical Power of Attorney” form. After the death of one patient, Johnson changed the VSR pension payment deposit location to her own bank account. VRS thereafter paid at least 8 monthly pension payments into Johnson’s bank account before belatedly confirming the patient’s death.
Great job by the Virginia Medicaid Fraud Control Unit in this investigation.
Today’s Fraud of the Day is based on an article “Chester woman received Medicaid, pension payments from unlicensed group” published by Virginia 8News on December 22, 2022
A Chester woman has pleaded guilty to multiple fraud charges for her involvement in a Richmond-based health care services scheme.
Sharon Johnson, 58, owned and operated “Sharon Y. Johnson & Associates” between 2014 and 2021. Johnson signed up numerous clients, offering to manage their personal and home healthcare needs, paid for by the patients’ Medicaid eligibility. According to court documents, Johnson’s personal residence in Chester served as an unlicensed group home, housing up to half a dozen Medicaid recipients.
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