A Baton Rouge man billed Medicaid for transporting patients to hospitals over a six-month period, but investigators now say those rides never happened. In fact, they report some of those claims involved people whose death certificates had already been signed.
Johnny Richardson, 38, was booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish prison on Friday on four counts of Medicaid fraud, a felony.
Richardson is the owner and sole driver for Xpress Medical Transportation, a non-emergency medical transporter, according to a probable cause statement for his arrest.
Transporters like Xpress are considered covered by Medicaid when they are delivering a patient to or from a Medicaid-covered treatment and when no other means of transportation is available.
Between December 2021 and May 2022, Richardson fraudulently billed Medicaid for trips involving four patients who had contracts for routine transportation to the hospital with Xpress, according to investigators with the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.
However, these patients were already either dead or hospitalized during the dates of some of their planned trips to the hospital. Even though the trips never happened, Richardson billed Medicaid as if they did, investigators say.
The alleged fraud was uncovered by comparing the dates on medical records and death certificates for these patients with the dates on Richardson’s transportation claims.
One patient was admitted to the hospital for a period of time on a mental health diagnosis. Xpress fraudulently billed Medicaid $2,625 for trips that would have happened during the woman’s inpatient stay at the hospital.
Another patient was admitted to the hospital for sepsis and eventually died. Xpress billed Medicaid over $200 for trips that overlapped with the patient’s hospital stay, then continued to charge Medicaid for trips to and from the hospital after the patient was already dead.
For a third patient, Xpress again continued to bill Medicaid for trips that would have occurred after the patient’s death.
In total, Richardson made claims in a sum of $5,718.94 to Medicaid for trips that would have occurred after the person’s death certificates had already been signed.
Another $2,902.24 was allegedly billed to Medicaid for trips that would have occurred when those patients were already hospitalized.
Normally, for Xpress or other transporters to bill Medicaid, the transporter must get forms signed by the treatment facility documenting that the trip took place and that the patient was successfully delivered.
However, the only exception to getting these confirmation forms signed is when a patient has a series of routine appointments at the same medical facility. For these “standing order trips,” a transport provider is assigned to the same patient for a period of six to 12 months for their routine appointments.
During that time, the traditional forms confirming that a patient was delivered are not necessary, which allowed Richardson to make fraudulent claims.
Richardson’s bail was set at $4,000 and paid the day of his arrest. He has an arrest history that includes drug possession and distribution, theft and home invasion.
No Comment! Be the first one.