Two former executives at a company that offered substance-abuse treatment at facilities in Lancaster, Long Beach and Carson were sentenced Wednesday to prison for defrauding Medi-Cal by billing more than $500,000 for ineligible services.
One defendant was sentenced to 18 months behind bars and the other defendant received a year and a day in federal prison. They were also ordered jointly liable for restitution of $260,101, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The defendants each pleaded guilty in separate hearings last year to a federal health-care fraud count.
They were named in a 23-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in March 2018, charging both defendants with 21 counts of health-care fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft stemming from the scheme that ran from 2009 through 2015.
The charges primarily involved services provided to girls residing at group homes in Lancaster, Long Beach and Carson — facilities where the defendants were not authorized to provide counseling. More than $500,000 in false and fraudulent claims for group and individual substance abuse counseling services was submitted and more than $260,000 on those claims was paid, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated since it was published.
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