RN Takes Plea Deal In Faked Medicaid Claims for Disabled Clients

WESTCHESTER COUNTY, NY — A private-duty nurse pleaded guilty Thursday to submitting more than $390,000 in false Medicaid claims for services he did not provide to two New Yorkers who need round-the-clock care. The plea deal includes jail time and paying back the money.

Anyanwu-Mueller pleaded guilty in Westchester County Court in White Plains before the Honorable Barry H. Warhit to Grand Larceny in the Third Degree, a class D Felony.

The Bridgeport, Connecticut resident will be sentenced on Feb. 22, 2018 to one year in jail and agreed to pay $392,954.00 in restitution, said New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

“The Medicaid home care program is meant to provide severely disabled New Yorkers with the care they need,” Schneiderman said in the announcement. “Fraudsters who rip off this vital program by using it as a personal piggy bank will be caught and prosecuted.”

Between August 2010 and January 2015, Anyanwu-Mueller submitted claims for payment to Medicaid saying he provided private-duty nursing services to two severely disabled Medicaid recipients. Both patients required around the clock care at their homes in New Rochelle and Pleasantville, New York.

Anyanwu-Mueller’s false claims included instances when the recipients were in the hospital, when another nurse provided the care, when he was in Europe and when he was caring for the other recipient.

And then there was the extended period when he sent an unlicensed person to the recipient’s home but billed Medicaid as if he provided the care himself.

The original indictment had charged him with Grand Larceny in the Second Degree, a class C felony carrying a maximum sentence of up to 15 years in state prison, and Offering a False Instrument for Filing in the First Degree, a class E felony that carries a maximum sentence of up to four years in state prison.

PHOTO: Collins Anyanwu-Mueller/ NY Attorney General's Office

SEE: Bridgeport RN Faked Medicaid Claims for Severely Disabled Patients: New York AG

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