Jefferson City, Mo. – Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley announced that his office, along with St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch, Pemiscot County Prosecuting Attorney Jereme Lytle, and Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney Jean Peters Baker, recently obtained indictments and charged personal care attendants Julius Terry (St. Louis), Reida Thornton (St. Louis), Felicia Ricks (Caruthersville), and Angel Zahnter (Kansas City) with defrauding Missouri’s Medicaid program. In addition, Medicaid recipient Joyce Terry (St. Louis) was indicted for defrauding Missouri’s Medicaid program and Medicaid recipient Michael Robinson (Caruthersville) was charged with conspiring to defraud Missouri’s Medicaid program.
Each of the six cases involves Missouri Medicaid’s Personal Care or Consumer Directed Services programs. These programs provide in-home personal care services to Medicaid recipients who have qualified for nursing home level of care. In both programs, personal care attendants are to assist patients in the patient’s home with activities of daily living such as food preparation, bathing, dressing, and grooming. Both programs require the Medicaid recipient receiving these in-home services to confirm that the services were provided as represented by the personal care attendant. The defendants in these cases are alleged to have defrauded these programs, in total, of more than $49,000.
Pemiscot County Cases
Felicia Ricks was charged with one count of Medicaid Fraud for allegedly claiming to provide in-home personal care services to Michael Robinson while Robinson was incarcerated in the Pemiscot County Jail. In turn, Robinson was charged with one count of Conspiracy to Commit Medicaid Fraud for conspiring with Ricks to defraud Medicaid. Together, Ricks and Robinson allegedly defrauded Medicaid in excess of $6,000. Both Ricks and Robinson were charged as prior and persistent felony offenders.