LR couple sentenced in Medicaid fund fraud
Posted on Sunday, November 16, 2008
A Little Rock couple, Tyrone and Rosemary Williams, were sentenced Thursday in a federal court on charges arising from a scheme that defrauded the Arkansas Medicaid Program Trust Fund of about $ 50, 000.
According to a 2007 grandjury indictment and a news release issued Friday by U. S. Attorney Jane Duke, Tyrone Williams founded the National Degree Program, which he promoted as an organization providing social, educational and medical services to Medicaid-eligible people.
In February 2006, he enrolled the program in the Arkansas Medicaid program, which uses state and federal tax dollars to reimburse the poor for health-care services. Williams, who has a previous conviction for defrauding the federal government, submitted numerous claims for “targeted case management” services that he knew weren’t covered, including taking clients on errands, paying their utility bills and tutoring them for the GED exam, Duke said.
She said he also inflated the time spent with Medicaid recipients and billed for time spent by non-certified aides, in violation of reimbursement guidelines. U. S. District Judge James Moody ordered Williams, who pleaded guilty to a charge of health-care fraud, to make restitution of $ 49, 117 and to serve two years in prison. His wife, who admitted her knowledge of the scheme in pleading guilty to a charge of misprision of a felony, was sentenced to three years’ probation for failing to report it.
Williams committed his crime while on probation for his previous tax-fraud conviction, for which he served 18 months, Duke said.
The case was investigated by the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General and the Little Rock field office of the FBI. It was prosecuted by Assistant U. S. Attorney Laura Hoey.
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