Maria Kokolis, Health Care Fraud, Virginia 2022

Norfolk, VA – A Williamsburg wellness center owner has been sentenced to 7 years in prison for defrauding Virginia Medicaid and other health care programs of over $2 million.

Maria Kokolis, 48, owned and operated Pamisage, Inc., a center for integrative behavioral health and medicine, with a focus on weight management issues. The scheme to defraud and overbill various health care benefit programs and the Virginia Medical Assistance Program (Medicaid) began in or about 2018 and continued through February 2020.

Kokolis charged 45 minutes to an hour of face-to-face psychotherapy services for noncomparable services, such as sending messages through the company’s smartphone app or monitoring a client’s data. She billed these psychotherapy services for times when she was out of the country on vacation and when the clients were out of state or sick in the hospital.

Kokolis also billed for months of services for people who met her one time and then never enrolled in the program. The fraudulent billing became so extensive that on 332 separate occasions, Kokolis billed for services that exceeded 24 hours in a single day.

Kokolis used the names, Medicaid ID numbers, and other identifying information of her clients in submitting these false claims to the health care benefit programs. She received a total of at least $2,202,627.77 in fraudulent health care benefit program reimbursements, a portion of which came from the U.S. government.

In a separate fraud scheme, Kokolis applied for a Payment Protection Program (PPP) loan falsely certifying that her monthly payroll was $25,000 and she had 6 employees, when she had only one employee and her monthly payroll was not $25,000. As a result of the false application, Kokolis received a PPP loan in the amount of $54,112.50, to which she was not entitled.

Kokolis was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Arenda L. Wright-Allen. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph L. Kosky and Clare P. Wuerker.

Defendant: Maria Kokolis

Criminal Charges: Health care fraud

City and State: Norfolk, VA

Exact Date: February 2020 (crime date)

Sentence or Outcome: 7 years in prison

Dollar Amounts: $2,202,627.77 (fraudulent health care benefit program reimbursements), $54,112.50 (PPP loan)

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