Medicare fraud unit adds detectives

Two new investigators have been hired for the Eastern Washington Medicare Fraud Unit, part of a Spokane expansion aimed at stopping unscrupulous providers, state Attorney General Rob McKenna announced.

Within a year, the office that accounts for between 30 percent and 40 percent of the state’s Medicaid fraud cases will also add another investigator, an additional prosecutor and support staff, said Tony Rugel, the unit’s director.

“I don’t think Eastern Washington is any different than anywhere else with regard to the crimes that are occurring,” Rugel said. “But as we send more investigators, we’re uncovering more and more.”

The two investigators who joined this office this month are Grant Collins, a former inspector with the Spokane Consumer Protection Division, and Larry Carlier, a former U.S. Postal Service inspector with nearly a quarter-century of experience enforcing postal laws.

Statewide, the unit successfully prosecuted 24 cases, including two resident abuse cases and 22 Medicaid fraud cases. About eight of those were filed in Eastern Washington, said Janelle Guthrie, a spokeswoman for McKenna.

That included charges filed in December against a Spokane Valley company that allegedly billed taxpayers for tens of thousands of dollars for health care services that were never performed.

Sandra Christiansen, owner and president of First Choice Health Services Inc., was charged with 17 counts of first-degree theft for billing and receiving some $83,000 in payments for nursing care when no care or a lesser level of care was delivered. The case is scheduled for trial in August, court records indicated.

A three-year audit revealed the allegedly fraudulent billings. The $83,000 was only a small percentage of the company’s Medicaid billings, which amounted to more than $5.2 million during the audited period.

The Eastern Washington expansion is funded through about $450,000 in federal Medicaid fraud funds and about $150,000 in state funds.

“We thought it would be a good idea for us to expand and be responsive,” Rugel said.

The agency focuses only on fraud committed by providers of Medicaid services. It does not, for instance, investigate or prosecute welfare fraud, Rugel emphasized.

Reach reporter JoNel Aleccia at (509) 459-5460 or by e-mail at jonela@spokesman.com