AG Van Hollen: Milwaukee business owner and business corporation sentenced for Medicaid fraud

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Bill Cosh 608/266-1221

MADISON — Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen announced today that Audrey Methu, 50, of 6815 W. Capitol, Milwaukee, has been sentenced for her part in a scheme to defraud the Wisconsin Medicaid program. Methu had been convicted of Medical Assistance Fraud, a class H felony, on September 29, 2009. Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Daniel Konkol sentenced Methu to a term of four and a half years imprisonment, comprised of 18 months initial confinement and 36 months extended supervision. Konkol then stayed the sentence and placed Methu on probation for a period of three years, with conditions including 12 months in the Milwaukee House of Corrections and repayment of the amount she defrauded the program.

The charge stems from Methu’s ownership of Quality Life Care Management, a business that helps Medicaid recipients obtain the services they need. According to the Criminal Complaint filed by the Department of Justice, Methu submitted inflated claims to the Medicaid program. Company payroll records show that between June 2005 and November 2005, Methu billed Medicaid for 5,617 more hours than were actually worked causing $141,275.00 in overpayments by the program. For most of the months involved, Methu was, in effect, doubling and tripling her actual payroll hours.

The business corporation, Quality Life Care Management, was sentenced to pay fines of $15,000.00 and ordered to have joint and several liability for the amount that Methu stole from the Medicaid program. The corporation also appeared in court on September 29, 2009, to enter pleas of guilty to three charges of Medical Assistance Fraud, class H felonies.

Van Hollen said, “those who steal medical assistance funds are stealing from the poor. When this kind of fraud is detected, the Medicaid Fraud Control and Elder Abuse Unit will investigate and prosecute the offense.”

The case was investigated by the Wisconsin Department of Justice’s Medicaid Fraud Control and Elder Abuse Unit and was prosecuted by Assistant Attorney General Eric D. Défort.