Columbus healthcare provider sentenced for Medicaid fraud

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – The owner of a home healthcare agency has been sentenced after being convicted of falsely billing the state’s Medicaid system.

Dorreetha Irby, owner of Loving Hearts LLC of Columbus, was sentenced Thursday to five years of probation, a suspended 10-month prison sentence and $13,261.06 in restitution, according to Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s office.

Irby was found guilty in May of Medicaid fraud and forgery, both fifth-degree felonies, after a week-long trial.

According to Yost, Loving Hearts contracted with the Ohio Department of Medicaid and the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities to provide in-home care for Medicaid patients living with developmental disabilities. Irby would then file false time sheets, billing Medicaid for the maximum number of hours regardless of the services Loving Hearts actually provided.

“Facilitating fraud under the guise of a business named ‘Loving Hearts’ is a sick and twisted irony,” Yost said in a news release. “Those who rely on Medicaid – and the taxpayers that fund Medicaid – deserve honest providers with kind hearts, not thieves in the night.”