North Carolina woman sentenced to prison for Medicare fraud

RALEIGH, N.C.

A North Carolina lady has been sentenced to almost two years in jail for conspiring with others to defraud North Carolina’s Medicaid system by turning in additional than $4 million in faux claims for behavioral well being companies.

Sharita Mathis Richardson of Greensboro was additionally sentenced on Wednesday to a few years of supervised launch for conspiracy to commit well being care fraud. She pleaded responsible to the cost in March 2021, mentioned U.S. Legal professional Michael Easley.

As a part of sentencing, Richardson was additionally ordered to pay greater than $2 million in restitution to the North Carolina Fund for Medical Help, in keeping with a information launch.

Courtroom paperwork and knowledge offered in courtroom confirmed Richardson conspired with others between roughly 2012 and 2016. One in every of them, Antonio Fozard, owned and operated plenty of behavioral well being corporations that mentioned they supplied companies to Medicaid beneficiaries. Prosecutors mentioned every of those entities engaged in a scientific effort to steal from Medicaid by billing for companies that have been by no means delivered.

Fozard was considered one of 4 co-conspirators to plead responsible to conspiracy to commit well being care fraud in separate associated instances. The opposite three have been sentenced, and Fozard is scheduled to be sentenced in July.