Hampton man sentenced to over nine years in prison for defrauding Virginia Medicaid and Virginia Unemployment

RICHMOND, Va. – A Hampton man was sentenced yesterday to nine years and three months in prison for healthcare and unemployment fraud schemes that resulted in nearly $1 million in loss. Jamahl Rennelle Burch, aka Jarod or Jerrod Burch, 43, pled guilty on Aug. 29 to conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, healthcare fraud, and aggravated identity theft.

According to court documents, from May 2015 through November 2023, Burch targeted and defrauded two different government benefits programs: Virginia Medicaid’s consumer directed care program and Virginia’s unemployment program.

The Virginia Medicaid Program provides medical assistance to indigent individuals who meet certain eligibility requirements. Under its consumer directed care program, Medicaid authorizes the provision of personal and respite care services to eligible Medicaid recipients by a personal care attendant (PCA). Personal care services include a range of support services to enable Medicaid recipients to remain at or return home rather than enter a nursing facility and include assistance with activities of daily living, access to the community, self-administration of medication, or other medical needs, supervision, and the monitoring of health status and physical condition.

Burch targeted Medicaid recipients to sign up for Medicaid reimbursed personal care or respite care services. Burch and his co-conspirators executed agreements that designated numerous different individuals as PCAs for those recipients. Burch used the personal identifying information (PII) of the Medicaid recipients and purported PCAs to create accounts for the submission of timesheets for purported personal care and respite care services.

For over eight years, Burch submitted fraudulent timesheets to Medicaid showing thousands of hours of personal care and respite care services. Burch approved these timesheets, attesting that services were provided, when he and his co-conspirators knew that none of the PCAs provided any personal or respite care services to the Medicaid recipients.

In total, Burch and his co-conspirators knowingly caused Medicaid to pay at least $936,950.70 in fraudulent reimbursements for personal care and respite care services that never occurred.

Burch also submitted fraudulent unemployment applications to the Virginia Employment Commission, causing $15,720 in unemployment benefits to be paid to him from Virginia’s unemployment insurance (UI) program and the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) program. UI is a joint state-federal program intended to provide temporary financial assistance to unemployed workers under certain circumstances.

In 2020 and 2021, Burch submitted four fraudulent unemployment applications using the PII of two of the purported PCAs from his Medicaid fraud scheme, falsely claiming that they had been terminated from their fake positions as PCAs. Two of these fraudulent applications were approved, one in the name of each of the two purported PCAs. Burch then submitted weekly certification requests for additional unemployment benefits for these applications, falsely representing that the purported applicants were still unemployed and in need of supplementary funds.

After his initial arrest in November 2023, Burch repeatedly violated Court orders prohibiting him from having contact with potential witnesses in the pending criminal case, including by contacting several individuals who have since been charged as co-conspirators.

In addition to his term of imprisonment, the Court order Burch to pay $936,950.70 in restitution to Medicaid and $15,720 in restitution to the Virginia Unemployment Commission, and to forfeit $806,008.38.

Erik S. Siebert, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Jason Miyares, Attorney General of Virginia; Stanley M. Meador, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Richmond Field Office; Maureen R. Dixon, Special Agent in Charge of the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS); and Troy W. Springer, Special Agent in Charge, National Capital Region, U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, made the announcement after sentencing by Senior U.S. District Judge John A. Gibney Jr.

The Medicaid Fraud Control Unit also provided significant assistance in this case.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Carla Jordan-Detamore and Brian R. Hood prosecuted the case.

A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information are located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 3:24-cr-8.