A 34-year-old Magnolia woman pleaded guilty this week to health care fraud and aggravated identity theft after admitting she billed Medicaid about $477,872 for mental health therapy sessions that were never provided, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas said Thursday, Oct. 2.
Prosecutors said Tekiyah McLeod served as the registered agent for nLove Community Services LLC, which claimed to provide mental health therapy to Medicaid beneficiaries. She admitted billing Medicaid for services that were never performed, including services she purportedly provided to herself, and received about $453,323 from Medicaid as a result. McLeod also used a nurse practitioner’s name and National Provider Identifier to submit the fraudulent claims without the practitioner’s knowledge, according to the plea agreement.
U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison accepted the plea and set sentencing for Dec. 16. McLeod faces up to 10 years in federal prison for the health care fraud count and a mandatory consecutive two-year term for aggravated identity theft, plus a possible $250,000 fine. She was permitted to remain on bond pending sentencing. The FBI handled the investigation with the Texas Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and the Virginia Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit; Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander Alum is prosecuting.
Montgomery County Medicaid recipients and providers who believe they have been billed for services they did not receive can report it to the Texas Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud hotline at 1-800-252-8011 or to the federal Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General at 1-800-HHS-TIPS.
Sources:
U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Texas
Montgomery County Police Reporter