BRADLEY COUNTY SPEECH THERAPIST CONVICTED OF MEDICAID FRAUD
July 16, 2013
LITTLE ROCK – Attorney General Dustin McDaniel announced today that a Bradley County woman has been convicted of Medicaid fraud for improperly billing the Arkansas Medicaid Program for services she did not perform.
Karen Carraway, 61, of Warren pleaded no contest to one count of Medicaid fraud, a Class B felony, in Pulaski County Circuit Court on Monday. Judge Wendell Griffen sentenced Carraway to three years’ probation and ordered her to pay an $18,000 fine and $6,000 restitution to the state Medicaid Program.
“Individuals who defraud Medicaid are taking money from the hands of taxpayers and from the vital healthcare services that beneficiaries receive from the Medicaid program,” McDaniel said. “I am grateful for the efforts of investigators and attorneys from my office to secure this conviction.”
Carraway, a licensed speech language therapist, provided speech therapy services to eligible Medicaid beneficiaries under age 21. A parent of two of Carraway’s clients notified the Attorney General’s Office last year that she believed Carraway was continuing to bill Medicaid for speech therapy services to her children, although Carraway had ceased providing those services months earlier.
Investigators from the Attorney General’s Office determined that Carraway made multiple false claims to Medicaid from January 2010 through October 2011. Those included 15 false claims at times when Carraway was hospitalized.