Collins Anyanwu-Mueller, a registered nurse from Seymour, Connecticut, has been sentenced in a New York court to one year in prison for stealing over $390,000 from Medicaid.
Anyanwu-Mueller previously pleaded guilty to Grand Larceny in the Third Degree, a Class D felony, after an investigation conducted by the New York Attorney General's office revealed that, over the course of nearly five years, Anyanwu-Mueller had submitted false claims for private duty nursing services that he never provided to severely disabled patients.
Prior to his sentencing, Anyanwu-Mueller paid the State of New York $25,000. He has agreed to pay the remaining $367,954 in restitution owed.
“The Medicaid home care program is meant to provide vital care to severely disabled New Yorkers,” said New York State Attorney General Barbara D. Underwood. “Fraudsters who rip off Medicaid will be caught and prosecuted.”
An investigation by the Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (“MFCU”) uncovered that between August 2010 and January 2015, Anyanwu-Mueller submitted claims for payment to Medicaid in which he falsely represented that he provided private-duty nursing services to two severely disabled Medicaid recipients. Anyanwu-Mueller's false claims included instances when the recipients were in the hospital, when another nurse provided the care, when he was in Europe, when he was caring for another Medicaid recipient, and for an extended period when he sent an unlicensed person to the recipient's home but billed Medicaid as if he provided the care himself. Both Medicaid recipients required around-the-clock care at their homes in New Rochelle and Pleasantville, New York.
Steven A. Meyerowitz
Steven A. Meyerowitz, a Harvard Law School graduate, is the founder and president of Meyerowitz Communications Inc., a law firm marketing communications consulting company. He may be contacted at [email protected].