Beltsville Woman Pleads Guilty to Felony Medicaid Fraud

BALTIMORE, MD ( July 17, 2009) - Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler announced today that Janet Alphia Carter, 38, of Beltsville, pled guilty in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County to felony Medicaid fraud and to the misdemeanor offense of practicing registered nursing without a license. The Honorable Terrence J. McGann sentenced Carter to two years incarceration for the felony offense, all suspended, and one year incarceration for the misdemeanor offense, all suspended. Judge McGann also imposed three years supervised probation and restitution in the amount of $19,000.

Carter was employed as a registered nurse for a nurse staffing agency after she presented a fraudulent Maryland nursing license to her employer. In December 2004, she was assigned to care for a recipient in Medicaid’s Rare and Expensive Case Management Program. The program provides case management services to individuals with rare, expensive and chronic medical conditions. These services include at-home private duty registered nurse care. From December 2004 to May 2007, Carter submitted time sheets to her employer claiming that she rendered registered nurse services to the recipient, though she is not a licensed registered nurse. The time sheets were then used by Carter’s employer to submit claims to Medicaid for reimbursement. The total amount Medicaid paid for Carter’s fraud was $190,583.

The case was prosecuted by the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) of the Maryland Attorney General’s Office and was referred to the Unit by the Office of the Inspector General. In making today’s announcement, Attorney General Gansler thanked Assistant Attorney General Amanda Scott for her work on the case.