SC women got millions by pressuring employees to overbill autistic patients, court says
Two South Carolina women are headed to federal prison after pleading guilty to charges that their health care company overbilled autistic patients, costing the U.S. government millions.
Sumter residents Angela Breitweiser Keith and Ann Davis Eldridge were executives with the South Carolina Early Autism Project, which provided therapy for children and young adults diagnosed with the disorder, U.S. Attorney Sherri Lydon said in a news release.
Court records show their company overcharged Medicaid and Tricare “millions of dollars by inflating billing records and charging the government for services it did not provide to clients,” according to the news release.
Keith, 53, and Eldridge, 58, also pressured their employees to turn in falsified reports, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Employees were required to meet billing goals to get benefits or bonuses, which included “gift cards and company-expensed vacations,” according to the news release.
To reach these goals, the employees were instructed to exaggerate how long their sessions were with patients by including time spent commuting to meet clients, “waiting in driveways, ... and even while sitting in restaurants,” the U.S. Attorney said in the news release.
The Sumter women’s company began providing care to autistic patients in 2003, and the company was sold to Chancelight in 2012 for more than $18 million, according to the news release.
After the sale both women remained with the company, which settled a civil suit in 2018 by repaying the government “nearly $9 million for overbilling Medicaid and Tricare,” the U.S. Attorney’s office said.
On Tuesday, Keith was sentenced to a year in prison, while a judge ordered Eldridge to spend six months behind bars, according to the news release.
“Fraudulently diverting funds from vital government healthcare programs comes at a cost — as this sentence illustrates,” Derrick L. Jackson, Special Agent in Charge at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Office of Inspector General said in the news release. “Every dollar overcharged decreases funds available to provide desperately needed healthcare services to this vulnerable population.”
