LICENSED SOCIAL WORKER SENTENCED FOR DEFRAUDING MEDICAID PROGRAM

Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr. announced today that Donny W. Smith, a licensed certified social worker and Medicaid provider of mental health services in the Frederick and Hagerstown areas, was convicted of felony Medicaid fraud by Frederick County Circuit Court Judge Theresa M. Adams. He was sentenced to serve a period of nine months at the Frederick County Detention Center, with the balance of his five-year prison sentence suspended. He was also sentenced to five years of supervised probation following his release from incarceration. As a special condition of his probation he is ordered to pay restitution of $92,000.00 to the Mental Hygiene Administration.

Smith, 53, of the 3700 block of Maple Crest Rd., Knoxville, Frederick County, was found guilty of defrauding the Mental Hygiene Administration/Public Mental Health System and the Maryland Medicaid Program of approximately $92,000.00 from April 2003 through April 2004. Specifically, Smith submitted claims to the Medicaid program and was paid for those claims although he knew that he had not provided the therapy services for which he was billing. On one particular day, he billed and received payment for providing 23 hours of therapy. In another instance, he merely had an initial telephone call with a potential client, during which he obtained her medical assistance information and subsequently billed for providing several sessions of therapy.

As a consequence of his conviction, Smith is subject to administrative sanctions from the state Board of Social Work. In addition, he will be excluded from the program as a Medicaid provider for a period up to five years.

The case was prosecuted by the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) of the Maryland Attorney General’s Office. The MFCU conducted the investigation with assistance from the Mental Hygiene Administration (MHA), which suspended payments to Smith in April of 2004. MHA has been working with the MFCU to root out fraud in its programs. This conviction is one of three obtained this year involving mental health providers.  

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