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By Kathryn Watson | Watchdog.org Virginia Bureau
ALEXANDRIA — A co-conspirator in an alleged $1.5-million Medicaid kickback scheme involving a Richmond-area marketing company owner and a pastor will spend 37 months behind bars after pleading guilty in January.
Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli
Lorie Monroe, the 51-year-old owner of of Glen Allen-based Creed Xtreme Marketing Concepts, sent employees to find and refer Medicaid recipients to a self-proclaimed, intensive in-home therapy service provider run by a pastor in exchange for the kickbacks, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said Wednesday in a news release.
The trial of Monroe’s alleged co-conspirator Joseph Hackett, owner of supposed therapy provider Access Regional Taskforce and former pastor of the Leviticus International Network, will begin Aug. 7, Cuccinelli said.
Hackett is accused of fraudulently billing Medicaid at least $1.5 million for services provided by unqualified workers that did not address children’s mental health issues. He also is accused of billing Medicaid for mental health services the children did not need, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported in March.
Hackett allegedly agreed to give Monroe half of the Medicaid payments he received for every child she referred, according to Cuccinelli.
Monroe, sentenced by Judge Henry Hudson of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, also was ordered to pay $545,410 in restitution — the same amount she received in kickbacks — to the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services.
Monroe hired two employees specifically to “canvas” low-income areas, particularly Section 8 housing and subsidized projects in the Richmond and Petersburg areas, according to Cuccinelli’s office. The Virginia Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and the FBI investigated the case.
Monroe could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.
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