RICHMOND, Va. – A Chester lady pleaded responsible these days to charges of conspiracy to dedicate overall health treatment fraud, wellness treatment fraud, and wire fraud, all stemming from her procedure of a Richmond metro-place wellbeing care companies organization.
According to court paperwork, concerning 2014 and 2021, Sharon Johnson, 58, owned and operated “Sharon Y. Johnson & Associates” (SYJA). Johnson’s enterprise purportedly supplied Medicaid-reimbursed services that included equally Services Facilitator services—supervising a Medicaid recipient’s personalized care prepare and provider— and personal care services—home health and fitness treatment assist solutions developed to allow for a receiver to continue being at residence, rather than coming into a nursing residence or group residence. Johnson signed up various of her Support Facilitator shoppers, often without the need of their recognition or educated consent, to acquire particular care services from her corporation. Johnson used her private home in Chester—a one-tale, 3-bed room, 1,326-sq. foot structure—as an unlicensed team residence, housing up to a 50 percent-dozen Medicaid recipients, in addition to Johnson and a different SYJA staff, at any specified time.
Involving 2014 and 2021, Johnson fraudulently billed Medicaid for private care companies purportedly offered to at least 14 of her patients, knowingly submitting timesheets to Medicaid that falsely claimed that specified SYJA aides experienced offered expert services, when, in simple fact, individuals purported SYJA staff experienced not furnished dwelling wellbeing treatment companies to the people in dilemma. To execute this fraud plan, Johnson and her co-conspirators made on-line client portal accounts in the names of her individuals, and thereafter assumed these patients’ identities when “approving” and routing billing requests for SYJA house wellness care products and services that experienced not, in simple fact, been delivered.
Separately, Johnson also executed a plan to defraud the Virginia Retirement Technique (VRS) of pension payments paid out by the VRS to a single of Johnson’s unlicensed team residence residents. To receive management above her patient’s economic affairs, Johnson submitted fraudulent paperwork to the VRS including a “Medical Ability of Attorney” type, and, following her patient’s dying, changed the immediate deposit area of her now-deceased patient’s VRS pension payments to Johnson’s have lender account. VRS thereafter paid at minimum 8 month to month pension payments into Johnson’s financial institution account just before belatedly confirming the patient’s loss of life. Johnson, understanding she was not entitled to individuals VRS cash, spent these payments for her individual purposes.
Johnson is scheduled to be sentenced on April 18, 2023. She faces a highest penalty of 20 yrs in prison. Real sentences for federal crimes are generally significantly less than the highest penalties. A federal district court docket decide will figure out any sentence right after getting into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory variables.
Jessica D. Aber, U.S. Attorney for the Jap District of Virginia, and Stanley M. Meador, Exclusive Agent in Charge of the FBI Richmond Field Workplace, made the announcement soon after U.S. District Decide Hannah M. Lauck approved the plea. The Virginia Medicaid Fraud Handle Device assisted in the investigation.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Thomas A. Garnett and Shea Gibbons are prosecuting the situation.
A duplicate of this push release is positioned on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office environment for the Jap District of Virginia. Similar court docket files and information and facts are positioned on the web-site of the District Court docket for the Jap District of Virginia or on PACER by seeking for Circumstance No. 3:22-cr-16.