PSYCHIATRIST SENTENCED TO HOME DETENTION FOR FRAUD

Maryland Attorney General, J. Joseph Curran, Jr. announced today that Dr. Opauraugo Ihentuge Udebiuwa was sentenced to three years incarceration, suspending all but 12 months to be served as home detention, for defrauding the Medicaid Program by billing Medicaid for services that were never provided. Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Lynn K. Stewart also ordered Udebiuwa, 47, of the 400 block of West Central Avenue in Davidsonville, Maryland to pay $32,000 restitution to the Medicaid Program and to pay a penalty of $64,000, representing total payment of $96,000. Judge Stewart also placed Udebiuwa on three years probation, which will be supervised until that time when he makes full restitution and unsupervised thereafter.

Udebiuwa is a psychiatrist who was enrolled in the Medicaid Program as a Medicaid Provider. Udebiuwa’s practice was located on Park Heights Avenue in Baltimore City. He pleaded guilty in June to five counts of misdemeanor Medicaid Fraud for defrauding the Medicaid program of $32,000 during a one year period. Dr. Udebiuwa admitted fraudulently billing Medicaid by billing for services that he did not provide, by billing Medicaid for longer visits than he had actually provided, by billing Medicaid for medication management when patients were not on medication, and by billing Medicaid for family therapy when he did not provide family therapy. Occasionally Udebiuwa billed Medicaid for 17-18 hour work days, when in fact he was in the office for three hours on those days. Medicaid is a joint state and federal-funded program that provides health services to the indigent.

The case was referred to Attorney General Curran’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit from the Mental Hygiene Administration which administers mental health services for the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.