Koster
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (Legal Newsline) - Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster announced a $124,164.75 settlement with an in-home personal care services company and its owner/operator on Thursday for allegedly submitting false claims to Medicaid.
Reliable Home Health Services and Sharon Smith, its owner, allegedly failed to make sure that the company's employees were actually providing the services to Medicaid recipients they claimed. Reliable Home Health Services provides Medicaid recipients with in-home personal care attendant services.
Under the terms of the settlement, Reliable Home Health Services and Smith must pay $46,596.95 in restitution, $72,567.80 to the MO HealthNet Fraud Reimbursement Fund and $5,000 to the MO HealthNet Fraud Prosecution Revolving Fund for attorney costs. In addition, Smith agreed to immediately put a detailed plan of correction into practice at the company to make sure in-home health care services billed to Medicaid are legitimately provided.
"One of my top priorities as attorney general is to prosecute those who cheat Missouri taxpayers," Koster said. "We will continue to search for individuals who defraud the Medicaid program/system and we will recover public money stolen from our health care system."
The case resulted from a referral by the Missouri Medicaid Audit and Compliance Unit of the Department of Social Services.