By Margaret Gillerman
June 5, 2014
STL
Fourteen people in Southern Illinois were charged today with defrauding the Medicaid home services program in Illinois by claiming money they were not owed.
U.S. Attorney Stephen R. Wigginton of the Southern District of Illinois announced the indictments today. As a result of ongoing investigations, both personal care assistants and Medicaid recipients were found to have committed fraud.
In one case, a personal assistant claimed to be providing personal assistant services to her boyfriend while she was in jail and prison. Together, they claimed over 1,000 hours of personal assistant services during the periods where she was in prison. In another, a personal assistant claimed that she performed over 450 hours of personal assistant services during times that she was employed at a full time job and over 140 hours where she was working at another location and the client was also receiving kidney dialysis.