PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - A Rhode Island woman has been sentenced to a year of home confinement and ordered to pay more than $84,000 in restitution to her former employer for her role in a Medicaid fraud scheme, prosecutors said in a statement Wednesday.
Giovanne Gomez, 32, of Providence, was sentenced last week after pleading no contest to obtaining money under false pretenses from the Rhode Island Medical Assistance Program, according to a statement from the office of Attorney General Peter Neronha.
The charges stem from her role in a scheme to divert Medicaid funds into bank accounts owned and controlled by her and several accomplices, including her husband.
As a manager at a Cranston health care provider to those in need of home-based services, Gomez had access to Medicaid recipients’ records, prosecutors said. Gomez used that information to create fraudulent timesheets in the names of Certified Nursing Assistants for services that were never provided, prosecutors said.
The fabricated timesheets were submitted for payment to Medicaid and were paid by direct deposit into accounts controlled by Gomez and her accomplices, authorities said.
She was sentenced to six years in prison, with a year in home confinement and the remainder suspended with probation.
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