A Philadelphia woman has been sentenced to a prison term after a U.S. District Judge ruled on her role in a healthcare fraud scheme. Oksana Kredens, 60, received a 20-month sentence for conspiring to defraud Medicaid, United States Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero announced. The defendant was also subject to a three-year supervised release, a forfeiture of $81,000, restitution of $66,869, a $10,000 fine, and a $100 special assessment, following her guilty plea in October of last year.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Kredens was involved in a fraudulent operation where companies allegedly provided home-based personal assistance services to Medicaid recipients billed for services that were not rendered. Instead, arrangements were made to pay the recipients in cash, and “employees” were recruited to appear on the payroll despite no services being provided.
The fraud worked by the companies involved in the conspiracy billing Medicaid managed care organizations as though services had been given, while recipients got cash and recruits, who often had other sources of cash income, could earn W-2 income. Kredens profited by collecting cash equivalent to the payroll checks of these fake employees, and distributing parts of it to the recipients, pocketing the remainder for herself…