Long Island Nurse Faces Jail Time for Fraudulently Billing Medicaid More than $900K

LongIsland.com

A Long Island nurse now faces jail time and has been ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $949,000 for fraudulently billing Medicaid.

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A Long Island nurse who was hired to care for a seriously disabled child has been caught fraudulently billing the New York State Medicaid program and private insurance nearly $940,000 during a seven-year period.

Roxanne McKen, 45, a licensed practical nurse from Baldwin billed for hours claiming she was providing home care services to a seriously disabled child when she did not work. Billed hours included for time when she was on vacation (out of the state or country) and on weekends she was not scheduled for work.

McKen was sentenced on Tuesday by Queens County Supreme Court Justice Barry Kron to two consecutive terms of imprisonment and has been ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $939,000.

McKen pled guilty to felony charges of grand larceny in the third degree and offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree.

McKen falsely billed hours between Feb. 2003 and Aug. 2010, when she was hired to care for a young boy in the Bronx who was born with one lung and suffers from Vater Syndrome, a birth defect that can cause severe pulmonary conditions, seizures and developmental delays.

McKen also claimed Medicaid benefits for herself and her children by underreporting her income to indicate she was living below the poverty level. This all happened the same year she had charged Medicaid more than $220,000 for nursing services she did not render.

“The theft of Medicaid funds hurts New Yorker’s poorest patients, including kids who desperately need care, and our taxpayers,” said Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman. “What this defendant did was a crime plain and simple, and she is going to jail to pay for it.”

[Source: Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman]