Pittsburgh Woman Lands in Prison for Massive Medicaid Fraud

PITTSBURGH, Pa. – Tamika Adams, 45, of Pittsburgh, is trading her street for a cell after being sentenced to sixty-five months in federal prison for a brazen scheme to defraud the Pennsylvania Medicaid program. U.S. District Judge Cathy Bissoon also slapped Adams with two years of supervised release and a hefty restitution order of $445,131.67. The sentence, announced today by United States Attorney Cindy K. Chung, marks the culmination of a years-long investigation into a network of fraudulent home health care operations.

Adams pleaded guilty back on March 13, 2020, admitting her central role in a conspiracy stretching from 2011 to 2014. She worked as an employee for a trio of interconnected companies – Moriarty Consultants, Inc. (MCI), Activity Daily Living Services, Inc. (ADL), and Everyday People Staffing, Inc. (EPS) – all approved to provide services to Medicaid recipients. These services included personal assistance, service coordination, and transportation. EPS acted as the back-office support for the other two, but the real dirty work happened elsewhere.

Between 2011 and 2014, MCI, ADL, and Coordination Care, Inc. (CCI) raked in tens of millions of dollars in Medicaid payments, the vast majority tied to personal assistance services. Adams confessed to fabricating timesheets, claiming services were rendered when they weren’t, or backing up those claims with flimsy, manufactured documentation. The scale of the fraud was staggering; in one instance, she submitted timesheets claiming over 80 hours of care in a single week to one consumer while *also* holding the position of nominal president of ADL. The hustle was real, and it was illegal.

The deception didn’t stop at fabricated timesheets. Adams went to elaborate lengths to conceal conflicts of interest. For two years, a consumer lived with Adams, and she actively hid their co-habitation and the fact that she was that consumer’s power of attorney – both major red flags under Medicaid rules. She also paid kickbacks to her then-spouse, enlisting his help in the scheme. Adams and her father, co-defendant Tony Brown, used Brown’s name on timesheets for fabricated care provided to Adams’s spouse, then split the fraudulent payments three ways at an MCI office.

The greed didn’t end there. Adams also exploited a friend, an MCI employee, by submitting claims for services the friend never provided, all while the friend was recovering from a serious injury. She even misused the friend’s personal information to pocket the resulting salary payments. Throughout audits of the companies, Adams doubled down on the lies, fabricating documentation to mislead state authorities and cover her tracks. The total loss to the Pennsylvania Medicaid program attributable to Adams exceeded $250,000 related to her spouse alone.

This case serves as a stark reminder that healthcare fraud is not a victimless crime. It steals valuable resources from a system designed to help those in need and lines the pockets of criminals like Tamika Adams. While 65 months is a significant sentence, it barely scratches the surface of the damage she inflicted on the Pennsylvania Medicaid program and the taxpayers who fund it. The Grimy Times will continue to follow this case and report on any further developments.