Release date:
3/1/2019
(RALEIGH) Attorney General Josh Stein announced today that Catinia Denise Farrington of Cypress, Texas, was sentenced to 60 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release in the Middle District of North Carolina after pleading guilty in September to one count of healthcare fraud conspiracy and one count of tax evasion. Farrington was also ordered to make restitution payments of $3,950,656.01 to the Medicaid program and $391,747 to the Internal Revenue Service.
“This defendant used illegally-obtained patient data to cheat the Medicaid program and steal taxpayer money,” said Attorney General Josh Stein. “My office will continue our work to hold people accountable for healthcare fraud and abuse.”
Farrington owned Durham County Mental Health and Behavioral Health Services (DCMBHS) in Durham. From 2011 to 2015, DCMBHS submitted fraudulent claims to Medicaid that resulted in approximately $4 million being paid to DCMBHS for behavioral health services that were never provided. Some of the false claims used information provided by Haydn Thomas, who worked as an office manager for an oral surgeon during that period and gave Farrington the names and Medicaid identification numbers of dental patients. Thomas is scheduled to be sentenced March 27 after pleading guilty to making a false statement related to a healthcare matter and tax evasion.
Farrington also earned more than $1.1 million from DCMBHS but failed to file tax returns and evaded income taxes, resulting in approximately $391,747 in tax loss.
The investigation and prosecution of this case was conducted by the North Carolina Department of Justice’s Medicaid Investigations Division, the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of North Carolina, and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Tax Division.
About the Medicaid Investigations Division (MID)
The Attorney General’s MID investigates fraud and abuse by healthcare companies and providers, as well as patient abuse and neglect in facilities that are funded by Medicaid. Medicaid is a joint federal-state program that helps provide medical care for people with limited income. To date, the MID has recovered more than $500 million in restitution and penalties for North Carolina.
To report Medicaid fraud in North Carolina, call the North Carolina Medicaid Investigations Division at 919-881-2320.
Contact:
Laura Brewer (919) 716-6484
###