Healthcare Workers Charged with Fraud and Medication Theft

The Indiana Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit conducted 13 investigations, resulting in charges for 12 licensed healthcare professionals and Medicare providers. The investigations found that a licensed healthcare worker was stealing prescription drugs from their patients in each case.

The investigations are part of a national effort by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. As part of the National Healthcare Fraud Takedown, 324 health care workers, including 96 doctors, nurse practitioners, and pharmacists, were charged for their role in various healthcare schemes, resulting in $14.6 billion.

The Department of Justice says that 12 Attorney General's Offices and 50 federal districts seized over $245 million in cash, luxury vehicles, cryptocurrency, and other assets. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services prevented over $4 billion from being lost in fraudulent claims. Additionally, 205 healthcare providers across the country had their billing privileges suspended or revoked in the months leading up to the takedown.

"Healthcare fraud often results in physical harm to patients through medically unnecessary treatments or failure to provide correct treatments," said the U.S. Department of Justice. "Fraud schemes on vulnerable patients is a leading cause for the nationwide opioid epidemic."

Indiana Healthcare Worker Charges

• Jennifer Anne Brant, 62, was charged with fraud and theft for submitting service claims for an in-home patient that she never provided.
• Tara Tiara Brown, 43, faces two felonies for fake service claims submitted for in-home patients.
• Nathaniel Simpson, 34, faces two felonies and 16 misdemeanors for stealing medications from patients at Eleos Hospice Care.
• Billy Guthrie Jr., 48, was charged with two felonies for creating false information and stealing medications from patients at Greenfield Healthcare Center.
• Lindsay Plake, 40, was charged with four felonies and one theft misdemeanor for stealing prescription medicines from multiple patients at an assisted-living facility.
• Christy Orwig, 58, was charged with five felonies, including possession of a narcotic drug, for dispensing drugs for herself while working at a nursing home.
• Sheri Hapner, 53, faces four felonies for failing to keep proper records, forging records, and stealing medicine at the Waters of LaGrange nursing home.
• Dezarae Polinske, 30, was charged with two felonies for forging information and stealing medicine at Ascension St. Vincent Hospital.
• Catherine Grimes, 66, has six charges for failing to keep or make records and stealing “multiple types” of medication from multiple patients at an Indianapolis recovery center.
• Patrice Amos, 44, took nursing home patients' drugs for her own use and was charged with three felonies, including possession of a narcotic drug.
• Jenny Byrd, 41, has five charges admitting to diverting narcotic drugs for herself at a nursing home.
• Kayla Bell, 35, admitted to the investigation that she signed out drugs for a patient without a prescription at a nursing home and faces six felonies.