Feds: Couple made millions billing NC Medicaid program for care provided to dead people
A Las Vegas man pleaded guilty Thursday to working with his wife to defraud the North Carolina Medicaid program of $13 million by billing for services provided to dead people, federal authorities said.
Timothy Mark Harron, 52, faces up to 32 years in prison on charges of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to commit money laundering. His wife, Latisha Harron, previously pleaded guilty to the same charges and was sentenced to more than 14 years in prison and ordered to repay nearly $13.4 million to the Medicaid program.
Latisha Harron founded Agape Healthcare Systems Inc. in Roanoke Rapids and was able to enroll as a Medicaid service provider even though she had previously been convicted of identity theft, authorities said. She continued to bill the Medicaid system for home health services even after she moved from North Carolina in 2012.
She moved to Las Vegas in 2017 and married Tim Harron the following year, not disclosing on Medicaid records that he also was a convicted felon, authorities said.
Together, the couple expanded the fraudulent billing by scanning obituaries and using a Medicaid database to determine whether a deceased person had a Medicaid identification number, authorities said. For those that did, the couple would "back-bill" for up to a year of home health services purportedly provided by Agape.
The Harrons then laundered the Medicaid payments into various luxury items, authorities said, including a private jet, an Aston Martin sports car, Tiffany & Co. and Brioni clothing and jewelry, real estate in Maryland and eastern North Carolina, a penthouse apartment in Las Vegas and gym equipment. Many of the items, along with cash in their bank accounts, has been forfeited to the government as part of their guilty pleas.
"This person stole and used the information of people who had died to defraud the Medicaid program and then used that money to fund an extravagant lifestyle,” Attorney General Josh Stein said in a statement.
Agape was one of the Medicaid providers cited in a recent state audit that excoriated the Department of Health and Human Services for not keeping tabs on Medicaid providers. Dozens of health care providers whose licenses were revoked, suspended or had limits placed on them were allowed to continue treating Medicaid patients and bill the state for the services, according to the audit.
