NEW HANOVER COUNTY — A New Hanover County social worker has pleaded guilty to defrauding the state healthcare program for low-income households.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice Eastern District of North Carolina, 52-year-old Felicia Moore Jones conspired with Lakia Washington, of Clayton, North Carolina, in a fraudulent scheme of more than $400,000 in Medicaid billing. Jones was a social worker for New Hanover County during two various employment periods.
According to the county, she started with the health department in 2001 as a program assistant, earning $25,459. Her employment ceased in mid-2010 due to the grant funding ending, at which time Jones was a maternal outreach coordinator making $31,477.
Jones was hired back as an administrative assistant in May 2011 at a salary of a little more than $26,000 and by the time her employment ended in April 2023, she was a human services caseworker, making almost $52,000. The county listed Jones resigned from her position.
She pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiring with licensed mental health counselor Washington, who runs L.W. Therapeutics & Consulting, LLC. The scheme included Jones stealing patients’ identifying information as a government employee, for Washington to bill counseling services to fake patients.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office found Washington began the fraud as early as 2018 and through 2020 it led to the disbursement of up to $800,000 by Medicaid. The office found one scheme involved Washington billing more than 24 one-hour appointments in a single day, as well as executing invoices to an “unborn beneficiary still in utero at the time of the purported service.”
Jones would sell Medicaid ID numbers of New Hanover County residents to Washington for an agreed-upon finder’s fee per beneficiary, though services were never rendered. Court documents state Jones knew Washington was entering the fraudulent information to Medicaid. The investigation determined the individuals whose identities were stolen never paid out-of-pocket expenses.
Late last year, Washington pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing. Jones will face up to 10 years in prison and a possible fine.
“Government employees are supposed to be responsible stewards of our personal and health data, not steal it for their own profit,” Attorney General Josh Stein said in a press release. “I’m grateful to the Medicaid Investigations Division and the federal partners for their work to protect taxpayer resources and patient information.”
“We are fortunate to live in a generous country, where we are proud to help the less advantaged through programs like Medicaid,” U.S. Attorney Michael Easley added in the release. “But we will find and prosecute anyone who abuses that generosity for their own profit.”
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