HARTFORD, Conn. — A Waterbury woman was sentenced to 11 months in prison on Wednesday in Hartford Superior Court for defrauding Medicaid, according to a release on Thursday from the state’s Division of Criminal Justice.
Adrieonna Fisher, 30, billed the government health insurance program for Personal Care Assistant services that she did not perform, prosecutors said. She pleaded guilty to one count of fourth-degree larceny.
Fisher’s 11-month prison sentence includes execution of time suspended and is followed by three years of probation. According to prosecutors, Fisher paid $4,000 in restitution and will pay the remaining amount of $2,024.93 during probation; she was also ordered not to act as a provider in the Medicaid program.
Investigators from the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit in the Office of the Chief State’s Attorney revealed Fisher was hired in March 2015 as a Personal Care Assistant under the Personal Care Assistance Waiver program, or PCA.
The PCA program is a federal and state-funded Medicaid program administered by the Department of Social Services, according to prosecutors, which note that it provides funds to enable people with disabilities to hire assistants for daily care, allowing them to remain at home instead of being placed in a health care facility.
Fisher was hired to provide personal support to a 55-year-old developmentally disabled man. She left the job in July 2016 but continued billing Medicaid until that November for work she never performed, prosecutors said, adding that Fisher falsely completed and signed 13 written time sheets totaling more than $6,000.
In the process, she defrauded the State of Connecticut Medicaid Program. Prosecutors said she also attempted to submit two additional false time sheets, but those claims were denied.
Prosecutors ask anyone with knowledge of suspected fraud or abuse in the public health care to contact the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit at 860-258-5968.
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Dalton Zbierski is a digital content producer and writer at FOX61 News. He can be reached at dzbierski@FOX61.com.
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