Leavenworth woman ordered to repay $3,500 for Medicaid fraud

TOPEKA – (AP) –  A Leavenworth, kansas  woman has been ordered to pay more than $3,500 in restitution to the Kansas Medicaid program after pleading guilty to one count of Medicaid fraud, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said today.

Seunghee Lee, 61, of Leavenworth, was sentenced yesterday in Leavenworth County District Court by Judge Gerald R. Kuckleman on one count of making a false claim, statement or representation to the Medicaid program. Lee was sentenced to pay $3,519.44 in restitution to the Kansas Medicaid program, a $1,000 fine and to serve 12 months of supervised probation. Lee pleaded guilty to the charge on August 11.

An investigation found that Lee falsely billed the Medicaid program while serving as a personal care attendant for her mother-in-law who was a Medicaid beneficiary. Lee was submitting false claims as if she were providing home care for her mother-in-law, after her mother-in-law was hospitalized and had died.

The case was part of “Operation Keeping Them Honest,” a cooperative effort between the attorney general’s office and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services/Office of Inspector General to investigate fraudulent billing to Medicaid for personal care services provided in Medicaid beneficiaries’ homes. This sentencing brings to a close the first case in this joint effort to crack down on those who take advantage of these federal- and state-administered healthcare programs.

Other investigations are ongoing. The case are being jointly investigated by federal and state authorities and prosecuted by the attorney general’s Medicaid Fraud and Abuse Division. Senior Assistant Attorney General Eve Kemple of Schmidt’s office prosecuted the case against Lee.