Idia Oriakhi, $7.8M Medicaid Fraud, Texas 2017

A Houston-area home health agency administrator has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud in a $7.8 million Medicaid scam, the largest provider attendant services fraud case in Texas history.

Idia Oriakhi, 33, of Richmond, Texas, admitted to paying illegal kickback payments to patient recruiters and physicians for referring and certifying Medicaid patients for medically unnecessary and often not provided provider attendant services (PAS) from 2009 through 2016.

PAS services are for qualified individuals with intellectual disabilities or who have an approved medical need for assistance with personal care tasks.

Oriakhi's family-owned home health agencies, Aabraham Blessings, LLC; Baptist Home Care Providers, Inc.; Community Wide Home Health, Inc.; Four Seasons Home Healthcare, Inc. and Kis Med Concepts, Inc., submitted approximately $8,372,991 in fraudulent PAS claims to Medicaid and received approximately $7,894,135 on those claims.

The case was investigated by the FBI, HHS-OIG, IRS-CI and MFCU and brought by the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, under the supervision of the Criminal Division's Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas.

Oriakhi is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Sim Lake on April 20, 2017.

The charges are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/home-health-agency-administrator-pleads-guilty-78-million-medicaid-fraud