A Mount Vernon businesswoman whose plea deal was rejected by a federal judge earlier this year has been indicted on charges for Medicaid fraud.
A grand jury for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio indicted Amy Smart on one count of health care fraud and 12 counts of false health care statements through her former business Riverside Recovery Services, an addiction treatment provider.
The grand jury alleges in its June 5 indictment that Smart “willfully executed a scheme to defraud a health care benefit program” by allegedly billing Ohio Medicaid for services that never happened, including while she was on vacation, and allegedly instructing employees to misrepresent what services were provided to patients in order to get more money from the state program.
Smart’s lawyer, Michael Hunter, declined to comment.
In March, Smart originally pled guilty to the Medicaid fraud, but her plea deal was rejected by Judge James L. Graham, who called her actions “aggravated” and “intentional.”
Why did the judge overturn the plea deal?
Under the former plea deal, Smart would have served probation as along as she paid back the $345,000 the prosecution said she stole from Medicaid in their statement of facts.
Since the plea agreement was withdrawn by Hunter after Graham refused it, the statement of facts, or the facts that lay out the circumstances and events of an alleged crime, are not considered “valid” by the court and therefore can’t be used in a possible trial, per state and federal law. However, they are public record.
The grand jury’s indictment does not mention the $345,000, but outlays smaller amounts of alleged fraud.
Graham did not believe the sentence of probation to be harsh enough, considering that this wasn’t the first time Smart had been accused of fraud. Smart has a past conviction, probation and prison sentence for similar crimes, according to criminal records from the early 2000s. Pairing her past with her six-figure income at the time of the alleged fraud and allegedly ordering her employees to engage in the fraud with her, the judge said, meant probation wasn’t enough.
“Another sentence of probation is not likely to deter this lady from additional fraudulent activity,” Graham said in overturning the plea agreement back in March.
What happens next?
Smart will have an arraignment at a future date and likely formally enter a plea of not guilty. The case will then continue through the legal process.
Medical business and health care reporter Samantha Hendrickson can be reached at shendrickson@dispatch.com or @samanthajhendr on X, formerly known as twitter.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Mt. Vernon woman indicted on Medicaid fraud by grand jury after judge refused plea deal
Reporting by Samantha Hendrickson, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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