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Office of the Attorney General
First Steps' Therapist Sentenced and Ordered to Pay Restitution to Medicaid
Attorney General Jack Conway and his Office of Medicaid Fraud and Abuse Control today announced a plea agreement was reached in the case of a Kentucky physical therapist arrested earlier in 2008 on charges she defrauded the Kentucky Medicaid Program. Tiffany Bentley, 29, from Corona, in Letcher County, pled guilty today in Jefferson Circuit Court to Medicaid fraud, a class D felony, which will carry a one year sentence.
Under the terms of the plea agreement, the court ordered Bentley to a sentence of one year in the Kentucky Department of Corrections. The sentence will be diverted for a period of five years. As a condition of her diversion, the defendant was ordered to pay restitution to the Kentucky Medicaid Program for a total amount of $1,562.00 and to reimburse the Attorney General's Office for investigative costs.
"Through the hard work and determination of the investigators and prosecutors in my Office of Medicaid Fraud and Abuse, we were able to obtain both a conviction and restitution for the Kentucky Medicaid Program," said General Conway. "Our office will continue its efforts to detect and prosecute Medicaid Fraud."
Bentley, along with Vanessa Rouse and Janice Fields, fraudulently billed the Kentucky Medicaid Program for services provided to children in First Steps, a statewide early-intervention program for infants and toddlers experiencing developmental delays. During 2006 and 2007, they billed the state for services that were not provided to children. Rouse and Fields pled guilty to defrauding Medicaid in December 2008. Each was sentenced to one year in prison and also ordered to pay restitution to the Kentucky Medicaid Program. They served 30 days, the remainder of which was probated. Rouse and Fields were also convicted of bribing a witness in Perry Circuit Court in 2008 in a related case.
All of the cases were investigated and prosecuted by members of General Conway's Office of Medicaid Fraud and Abuse Control.
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