Freeport Woman Gets Brief Jail Sentence For Defrauding Medicaid

A Freeport woman was sentenced Friday to a week in jail and three years probation for defrauding $75,000 from Medicaid.

Sonia Ponce, 57, of Freeport, stole approximately $75,000 from Medicaid by filing false claims that stated that home-health care services were provided to two of her relatives by the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP), a home-care program funded by Medicaid. In March, Ponce pleaded guilty to third-degree forgery and petty larceny. Ponce was sentenced to one week in jail, three years probation, 150 hours of community service and a $1,000 fine.

“Taxpayer funds meant to care for our sick and disabled should not be abused by those taking advantage of the system,” Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said. “We will bring to justice those who defraud Medicaid and continue to protect the integrity of the system.”

CDPAP allows a representative of a physically disabled person, often a relative, to assume full responsibility for their home care and recruit, hire, supervise and fire the personal aides providing the care. The investigation conducted by the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) uncovered that Ponce used the personal identification numbers of the aides to record them logging in and out of work at times when the aides weren’t working, including several days when the aides were out of the country.

Ponce also falsified the aides’ timesheets and submitted them to Recco Home Care Services, the CDPAP fiscal agent. On several occasions, Ponce picked up the aides’ paychecks from Recco, forged the aides’ signatures on their paychecks and cashed them. Ponce then used the cash to pay the aides for the work that they performed but kept the fraudulent portion of the check.

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