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St. Louis County woman ordered to repay more than $5,000 for Medicaid fraud

Press release

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt announced that a St. Louis County woman was ordered to repay more than $5,000 to the MO HealthNet program after pleading guilty to Medicaid fraud-related charges.

“Missourians have a rightful expectation that Medicaid dollars will be spent on services, not on fraudsters,” said Schmitt. “My office takes its responsibility to protect Missouri taxpayers seriously and will continue to ensure Medicaid dollars are spent on those who need it most.”

Joyce Terry pled guilty to the class C felony of Medicaid Fraud in the Circuit Court of St. Louis County. Terry was a recipient of Medicaid services through the Consumer Directed Services Program in the St. Louis area from 2012 through 2018. Consumer Directed Services are in-home personal care services that Medicaid pays for but allows the Medicaid recipient to choose and hire her own personal care attendant. The recipient is then responsible for overseeing the work of her personal care attendant. As a part of Terry’s oversight responsibilities, she was to verify to her Medicaid vendor that her in-home services were actually provided by her chosen personal care attendant. Terry signed her name to timesheets attesting that in-home services had been provided to her between May 14, 2016 and October 19, 2016. However, an investigation, which included video surveillance, revealed that Terry consistently and knowingly attested to services that were not provided.

Terry pled guilty to causing the submission of 117 false claims to Medicaid. As a result, Terry was placed on 5 years of supervised probation. Her conduct resulted in a loss of $5,194.66 from the Medicaid program, which she will be required to pay back to the Medicaid program as a condition of her probation.

The case was a jointly investigated by the Missouri Attorney General’s Office and the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General. This case was prosecuted by Assistant Attorney General Michael Anderson, Assistant Attorney General Brad Crowell and investigated by Medicaid Fraud Control Unit Investigator Amy Moffett of Schmitt’s Office.