GREENEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A Tennessee woman who worked as a nurse in assisted living facilities and a doctor’s office without proper qualifications or licensing has pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges.
Misty Dawn Bacon, 44, pleaded guilty Thursday in Greeneville federal court to wire fraud, health care fraud and identity theft charges, the U.S. attorney’s office said. Bacon, of Morristown, faces up to 45 years in prison at sentencing in April.
Bacon used the registered nurse license numbers of other people to secure nursing jobs, according to a written plea agreement. Bacon does not have a nursing degree or a nursing license from the Tennessee Department of Health, but she was still hired by at least eight health care providers from 2012 to 2018, prosecutors said.
A convicted felon, Bacon worked in nursing homes, rehabilitation and assisted living facilities, a doctor’s office, and home health agencies. She rendered medical care to patients and she had access to patients’ private medical information.
Bacon also made false entries in patients’ medical records and submitted false claims to public and private health care benefit programs. After learning Bacon was not a real nurse, two of her employers voluntarily repaid health care benefit programs more than $500,000 in claims, prosecutors said.
“This defendant created a substantial danger to public health through her lengthy criminal scheme,” U.S. Attorney J. Douglas Overbey said in a statement.
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