Missouri Home Health Care Company Owner Indicted for $800,000 Fraud Against Medicaid and VA

The proprietor of a home healthcare business in Missouri has been charged with cheating the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Missouri Medicaid Program. The 40-year-old Natavia Boyd-Wells is charged with making false claims totaling over $800,000. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said in an official statement that Boyd-Wells is charged with two counts of making false statements pertaining to healthcare and four counts of wire fraud.

In 2020, Boyd-Wells’ business, Touch of the Heart Home Health Care LLC, became a part of the Department of Veterans Affairs and Missouri Medicaid networks. She is accused of filing multiple fraudulent claims for services that were never rendered, including paying for hospitalized patients who were unable to get home care. A plan to defraud government healthcare programs of their funding is detailed in the indictment.

False documentation was allegedly supplied as part of the health care fraud, notably during a Medicaid audit in Missouri in 2022, where Boyd-Wells allegedly electronically uploaded fabricated evidence of patient service. In some VA claims, she even went so far as to claim more than 24 hours of care in a single day. The financial cost of these measures resulted in the VA funding more than $600,000 for Boyd-Wells’ control and Missouri Medicaid disbursing at least $197,022.

Officials stress the seriousness of the accusations, but Boyd-Wells is still presumed innocent unless proven guilty. “This indictment should send a clear message that the VA Office of Inspector General will vigorously investigate those who would seek to defraud VA healthcare programs,” said Special Agent Gregory Billingsley, as reported by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The Missouri Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Office of Inspector General worked together on the investigation, which was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Derek Wiseman.

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