FL – Prison Time Handed Down To Tampa Man Convicted Of Medicaid Fraud

MM Curator summary

[MM Curator Summary]: Josh Maywalt used his role as a medical biller to file false claims and send them to a bank account he owned. You lost $2M in tax dollars.

 
 

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Crime & Safety


Prosecutors said the fraud occurred when Joshua Maywalt worked as a medical billing company in Clearwater.

 
 

D’Ann Lawrence White,

Patch Staff

 
 

Posted Mon, Jun 6, 2022 at 11:33 am ET

 
 

Prosecutors said the fraud occurred when Joshua Maywalt worked as a medical billing company in Clearwater. (Shutterstock)

TAMPA, FL — A 42-year-old Tampa man has been sentenced to five years, five months in federal prison for health care fraud, aggravated identity theft, filing a false income tax return and failing to file an income tax return.

U.S. District Judge Mary S. Scriven also ordered Joshua Maywalt to forfeit $2,257,029.86 and real property at 5346 Northdale Boulevard in Tampa, which can be traced to proceeds of his crimes.

Maywalt pleaded guilty on Dec. 1.

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According to court documents, Maywalt worked as a medical biller at a company in Clearwater that provided credentialing and medical billing services for its medical provider clients. In this capacity, Maywalt had access to the company’s financial, medical provider and patient information.

Maywalt was assigned to a Tampa Bay area physician’s account and was responsible for submitting claims to Florida Medicaid Health Maintenance Organizations for services rendered by the account to Medicaid recipients.

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According to prosecutors, Maywalt abused his role as a medical biller by wrongfully accessing and using the company’s patient information and account identification number to submit false and fraudulent claims to a Florida Medicaid HMO for medical services which were not actually rendered.

Maywalt also altered the “pay to” information associated with the HMO’s payment processor so the payments for the non-rendered medical services were sent to bank accounts under Maywalt’s control.

Prosecutors said Maywalt also signed and filed a false federal income tax return 2019 which substantially understated his income and reported only his employment wages, and not the money he was depositing into his bank accounts as a result of his fraudulent activities.

In addition, prosecutors said Maywalt failed to file federal income tax returns for 2017 and 2018.

“Health care industry professionals are required to follow Medicaid rules and accurately bill for services that are actually provided. Fraudulently billing Medicaid for personal gain cheats millions of people who fund the program and contributes to the soaring cost of health care,” said Omar Perez Aybar, special agent in charge with the Department of Health and Human Services. “Working closely with our law enforcement partners, we will continue to pursue those who exploit government health care programs.”

“Joshua Maywalt had no concern for anyone except himself. He exploited the personal information of medical patients, fraudulently billed services on behalf of a local physician and then cheated the U.S. tax system for his own personal gain,” said Brian Payne, special agent in charge of the IRS Tampa Field Office. “In the end, committing fraud doesn’t pay. In this case, it resulted in a five-year prison sentence and a multimillion dollar forfeiture order.”

Clipped from: https://patch.com/florida/southtampa/prison-time-handed-down-tampa-man-convicted-medicaid-fraud