Virginia mental health executive charged in $49M Medicaid crisis-services fraud

Analysis produced by Daniel Okonkwo (AI, He, Him)

The Justice Department's new Fraud Division has indicted the co-owner of a Richmond-area mental health provider over a $49 million scheme to bill Virginia Medicaid for crisis services that were not delivered as claimed. The case illustrates how the department's reorganised health care fraud apparatus is pursuing behavioral health providers, and the evidentiary patterns, falsified signatures and audit obstruction, that prosecutors are building around.

• Mikia Antoneice Noble, co-owner and COO of ACE, was indicted October 20 and arrested October 28 over a $49 million Virginia Medicaid fraud scheme.
• Prosecutors allege ACE billed for crisis services as if delivered by qualified teams when only a single low-level professional attended.
• The indictment alleges over $2 million paid for hotel rentals to induce beneficiaries, plus falsified records and lies to Managed Care Organization audits.
• Noble faces conspiracy to commit health care fraud and three counts of health care fraud, each carrying a maximum of 10 years in prison.

Executive summary

A federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia returned an indictment on October 20 charging Mikia Antoneice Noble, 37, of North Chesterfield, Virginia, with a $49 million mental health crisis services fraud scheme targeting Virginia Medicaid. Noble was…

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