Gary Woman Ordered To Pay $195,602.09 In Restitution

HAMMOND-Felicia Blount, 44, of Gary, Indiana, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Philip Simon following her plea of guilty to health care fraud, announced U.S. Attorney Kirsch.    

Blount was sentenced to 12 months and a day in prison, 2 years of supervised release and ordered to pay 195,602.09 in restitution.       

According to documents in the case, Felicia Blount owned and operated Lending Hand Transportation, a company that provided transportation for medical appointments and services.  Blount and co-defendant Charlotte Hunter, a company secretary, defrauded Indiana Medicaid by submitting claims for multiple trips to Indianapolis without corresponding medical claims.  The investigation revealed that the defendants submitted bills for trips not taken, inflated mileage, billed multiple-passenger trips as individual single-passenger trips, and altered travel documentation.  The fraudulent claims submitted to Indiana Medicaid equaled $443,917 and Indiana taxpayers paid Blount and Hunter $195,602.09 for those false claims.  Earlier this year, Hunter pleaded guilty to one count of health care fraud and was sentenced to two years supervised release and ordered to pay $195,602.09 in restitution.

“Defrauding the healthcare system steals from hard working tax payers while compromising the integrity of the system,” said U.S. Attorney Thomas L. Kirsch II.  “We will continue to work with the Indiana Attorney General and all other federal, state and local agencies to aggressively prosecute these cases.”

“Indiana Medicaid serves more than one million Hoosiers across the state,” Attorney General Curtis Hill said. “Many of these individuals are children, the disabled, and the less fortunate among us. To commit Medicaid fraud is to take advantage of our most vulnerable while also defrauding hardworking Hoosier taxpayers. Our Medicaid Fraud Control Unit works diligently to pursue those who abuse the system and commit fraud against the state so that they may be brought to justice.”

This case was referred by the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration and investigated by the Indiana Attorney Generals Medicaid Fraud Control Unit along with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service Office of Inspector General.  This case was handled by Northern District of Indiana Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane Berkowitz.

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