United States Attorney Richard B. Roper
Northern District of Texas

FORMER MANAGER OF REHAB CENTER IN LUBBOCK, TEXAS,
SENTENCED TO 18 MONTHS IN FEDERAL PRISON, WITHOUT PAROLE

Defendant Also Ordered to Pay More than $52,000 Restitution

LUBBOCK, Tx. — Tiffany J. Burch, also known as Tiffany Jay, the former office manager of Lakeside Rehabilitation and Care Center (Lakeside) on 24th Street in Lubbock, was sentenced this morning by U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings to 18 months in prison, announced U.S. Attorney Richard B. Roper of the Northern District of Texas. Judge Cummings also ordered that Burch pay restitution of $52,225.57. More than $7000 of that amount is to be paid to the Texas Medicaid Program and the remainder is to be paid to Lakeside. Judge Cummings ordered that she surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on October 12, 2007.

Burch, 40, pled guilty in May to one count of theft/embezzlement in connection with health care. At today’s sentencing hearing, the Administrator of Lakeside made a victim impact statement explaining how Burch’s actions affected the residents that trust and rely on Lakeside for their care.

From September 2003 to December 2005, Burch worked at Lakeside Rehabilitation and Care Center as its office manager. Lakeside is a long-term care provider of health and rehabilitation services and is authorized to provide services to Medicaid beneficiaries. It also accepts patients insured by private insurers and self-pay patients.

Medicaid contributes to the cost of long-term care for eligible beneficiaries. After deducting a base amount of a Medicaid beneficiary’s Social Security check for personal expenses, the beneficiary may be required to contribute toward the cost of his or her own care by using the patient’s Social Security payment. The portion of the Social Security check that the patient is entitled to keep for personal expenses is kept in trust by the provider and the provider is required to keep a log of patients’ expenses, payments, and contributions toward care.

In addition, various insurance providers may also contribute toward the cost of long-term care and rehabilitation services for their subscribers and individual patients may also pay for care “out of pocket.”

 In her role as office manager, Burch oversaw the patient trust accounts at Lakeside and handled insurance payments, Medicaid reimbursement checks, and other private payments. While she worked at Lakeside, Burch deposited and cashed checks from Lakeside for her own personal use. Some of these funds represented amounts held in trust by Lakeside for the use of individual patients beneficiaries. She also deposited insurance payments that were made to Lakeside into her personal account for her personal use.

U.S. Attorney Roper praised the excellent investigative work of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s Office - Medicaid Fraud Unit and said, “This case is another example of a thorough investigation conducted by General Abbott’s Medicaid Fraud Unit. Our cooperative efforts with the Attorney General’s office are critical to ferreting out and prosecuting these types of cases.”

The case was prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Amy Burch of the Lubbock, Texas, U.S. Attorney’s Office.

###