Las Vegas woman gets 90 days in Medicaid fraud case

By Steve Kanigher

Thursday, June 2, 2011 | 2:17 p.m.

A Las Vegas woman received a 90-day jail sentence and was ordered to pay $18,700 in restitution after pleading guilty in a Medicaid fraud case, the Nevada attorney general's office said today.

Jessica Enamorado, 39, pleaded guilty to intentional failure to maintain adequate records, a gross misdemeanor. She was sentenced by Clark County District Court hearing master Melisa De La Garza for a case prosecuted by the attorney general’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.

“The integrity of the Medicaid system must be protected,” Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto said in a statement. “This office will aggressively pursue and prosecute those people who would steal from Medicaid and at the same time cheat recipients out of receiving necessary care. We are sending a message to those in the health care community that Medicaid fraud will be punished. Additionally, the money we recover is returned to the system for use by those in need of services.”

Those convicted of Medicaid fraud might also be excluded from future Medicaid participation.

In 2009, Nevada Medicaid provided information to the fraud control unit that Enamorado was suspected of not providing personal care services to a Medicaid recipient for which she was receiving payment from Medicaid. Medicaid has a personal care assistant program to keep people living independently in their homes by providing basic services, including bathing, dressing, cleaning and meal preparation.

Enamorado was employed by a home care company to provide day-to-day care for the recipient. Investigators found that Enamorado failed to provide care services for the patient for whom she was employed, yet received payment as if she had performed the services.