Three more booked in alleged Medicaid swindle
Aug 02, 2011 | 3999 views | 0 0 comments | 14 14 recommendations | email to a friend | print
BATON ROUGE – Three Winnsboro women, all former employees of Cookies Helping Hand Inc. in Rayville, have been arrested and charged with defrauding the state’s Medicaid program, Attorney General Buddy Caldwell said Monday.

The Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit charged Georgia Lee Coleman, 50, with 35-counts of Medicaid fraud; Lisa Thomas, 45, with 10-counts of Medicaid fraud; and Yaschica Pleasant Jackson, 37, with four-counts of Medicaid fraud for their role in a scheme to bill Louisiana’s Medicaid program for services that were not rendered.

Franklin Parish Sheriff’s Office assisted with the arrests and bookings of the three.

An investigation revealed that the former employees of Cookies Helping Hand Inc. could not have provided the services for which they billed to the Medicaid program because the women were working at other jobs during that time.

The owner of Cookies Helping Hand Inc., Patricia A. Bell, 51 of Rayville, surrendered to the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit for arrest on July 22 and was charged with 60-counts of filing or maintaining false public records and seven-counts of Medicaid fraud.

These arrests stem from an investigation of billing practices at Bell’s company at 114 Ineichen Street in Rayville and 1298 Highway 861 in Crowville. During an extensive review of billing records, patient logs, employee time sheets, and other reports, investigators discovered that more than $575,000 was billed to and paid by Louisiana Medicaid for services allegedly provided by employees of Bell’s company, even though those employees were no longer employed by her company.

Bell also billed for services reportedly rendered while patients were in the hospital and for services when the employee was actually working at another job.

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