Date set for sentencing in embezzlement case

Friday, Feb. 20, 1998 | 10:39 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Sentencing has been set for May 29 for Mary Ferris, 36, who pleaded guilty Thursday to charges she embezzled $608,000 from the state health insurance program.

Ferris, appearing before U.S. District Judge Lloyd George in Las Vegas, entered her pleas to 10 counts of health care fraud and one count of health care embezzlement.

She was claims manager for L & H Administrators which processed the health insurance claims from state workers. Ferris submitted false claims using the names of real people and then pocketed the money.

Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa has filed a civil suit against Ferris and L & H Administrators to recover the loss.

"Ferris' sentencing is the necessary trigger for the Committee on Benefits to take the next step in the process of recovering $477,000 of the missing funds seized by the FBI," Del Papa said.

L & H Administrators fell behind in paying claims from state workers to their doctors, hospitals and other medical providers. Finally the state Committee on Benefits, which administered the system, fired L & H.

It was after the dismissal that the embezzlement was discovered.

When L & H was fired there was a backlog of more than 75,000 claims. The benefits committee then hired UICI of Texas to straighten out the problem. UICI has said it will have the claims current by mid-March.