BRUNSWICK, Ga. – A South Georgia Medicaid provider and its owner must pay $10 million to settle a civil fraud complaint.
The judgments, approved by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, awards the government $9.7 million from Brunswick-based Miracle Home Care, Inc. and $400,000 from owner Shashicka Tyre-Hill, of Brunswick, according to Bobby Christine, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia.
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The judgments are from a civil complaint filed in July 2018 alleging that Miracle Home Care filed claims for reimbursement for thousands of false or fraudulent non-emergency transportation and adult day health services. The government’s complaint alleged that Miracle also falsified thousands of records to cover up the false Medicaid claims.
Miracle and Tyre-Hill consented to judgments against them for violating the False Claims Act and the Georgia False Medicaid Claims Act. The U.S. attorney said they have agreed to the amounts of the judgments.
“This result sends a message to would-be unscrupulous providers of healthcare,” Christine said. “Anyone who defrauds federally funded health care programs will be met with meaningful consequence.”
The Georgia Attorney General’s office said the case was the result of years of collaboration between state and federal regulators.
“The results should send a strong signal that we will aggressively pursue those at fault for unnecessarily driving up the costs of our healthcare programs,” Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said.