Warner Robins woman admits to defrauding Medicaid for over $5 million. How she did it
A Warner Robins woman admitted Thursday afternoon in federal court to organizing a scheme to defraud the Georgia Medicaid program for over $5 million.
Elizabeth Sue Ivester pleaded guilty to one count of Medicaid fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft in front of Judge Marc Treadwell on Thursday afternoon. She admitted to operating Liberty Medical, a durable medical equipment supplier, which executed a fraud scheme by submitting at least 77,095 false claims for medical equipment that was never dispensed, according to court records.
The claims she submitted falsely represented the identity of the prescribing physician and used the recipients' Medicaid identification numbers, according to court records. It resulted in Georgia Medicaid paying $5.4 million for 7,684 recipients.
Ivester was arrested in June, court records say.
She faces a maximum sentence of 10 years and a $250,000 fine for her Medicaid fraud charge. For her aggravated identity theft charge, she faces a mandatory minimum sentence of two years.
Her case was the result of the Department of Justice and Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr’s effort to prosecute Medicaid fraud, officials said previously. That effort resulted in 324 people being charged. It included 96 doctors, nurse practitioners, pharmacists and other licensed medical professionals in 50 federal districts nationwide, who were accused of stealing over $14.6 billion, according to the DOJ.
“Prosecuting Medicaid fraud is a top priority for our office, and we’re proud to work with our federal partners in this effort,” Carr said previously. “Defrauding Medicaid is the same as stealing taxpayer dollars, and we will hold violators accountable.”
