U.S. Attorney: Multi-Million Dollar Medicaid Fraud Scheme Was 'Family Crime Conspiracy'
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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Twelve people are accused in one of the biggest fraud schemes ever prosecuted in the region.
Moriarty Consultants, on Perrysville Avenue, is the target of a multi-million dollar Medicaid fraud investigation.
Investigators say it not only Moriarty, but three other home health care agencies, managed by what the U.S. Attorney in Pittsburgh described as a "family crime conspiracy."
Now facing charges are the company's CEO, Arlinda Moriarty, and her sister, Daynelle Dickens, the firm's chief financial officer.
"The Moriarty case is one of the most significant cases that we have ever prosecuted in this area," Brady said.
Investigators say that the Moriarty sisters and their employees falsified time-sheets for in-home services, made up ghost employees and even falsified claims using the names of patients who had died or were in jail.
"It's significant because [it involves] the most vulnerable people in our community - the elderly, people with disabilities, the indigent. That fraud translates to hundreds of thousands of hours of care that they are not receiving while these people are lining their pockets," Brady said.
The Feds say the Medicaid rip-off investigation involving the two sisters, and the other former home health care employees, covered a period from 2011 to 2017.
During that time, the companies received more than $87 million in Medicaid payments.