St. Louis, Missouri – On 17th September 2020, a federal grand jury charged Yvonne Woods, age 50, a resident of St. Louis County, on three charges of making untrue, fictitious, or deceitful claims.
According to the accusations, from January 2014 to May 2019, Yvonne Woods professed to be homebound and in the necessity of getting home health care benefits sponsored by the Missouri Medicaid program.
The accusation states that Yvonne Woods planned to obtain and continue to get home health care from the program via a local home health care firm. As part of the deal, Yvonne Woods went through training and rubber-stamped timesheets regularly.
At first, an attendant gave Yvonne Woods some health care services. Still, in October 2014, the attendant acquired a permanent job with a different employer and ceased offering services to Yvonne Woods. Afterward, Yvonne Woods opened a bank account with the attendant’s name and with the accused’s contact details. Yvonne Woods submitted falsified timesheets weekly and obtained the reimbursements. Once Medicaid reimbursed the claims, without knowing the deceitful and illegitimate nature, Yvonne Woods received and used the cash from the account utilizing the attendant’s name. Yvonne Woods utilized the cash to reimburse for food, cell phone bill, utilities, and other expenditures.
Special Agent Curt L. Muller in Charge of the Office of Inspector General of the United States Health and Human Services Department said that Medicaid monies are essential to offering recipients crucial health and human services. Thus, the monies should be carefully protected. Curt L. Muller also added that dishonestly taking funds from this program is an injustice to Missouri recipients and the taxpayers who pay for such programs.
Yvonne Woods faces a maximum penalty of sixty months in federal prison for every count and will be fined up to 250,000 U.S. dollars. Yvonne Woods will remain innocent unless proven guilty by a federal court.
The Missouri Health net program with help from the MFCU (Medicaid Fraud Control Unit) of the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), and the HHS (United States Department of Health and Human Services) – OIG (Office of Inspector General) dealt with the investigation of this case.
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