A Wyandotte County woman was ordered last week to repay more than $41,000 to the Kansas Medicaid Program after pleading guilty to Medicaid fraud-related charges, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said.
Vivian Union, 41, pleaded guilty in November in Wyandotte County District Court to one felony count of making a false claim to the Medicaid program.
On Friday, Judge Bill Klapper ordered Union to repay $41,446 to the Kansas Medicaid Program. Judge Klapper also sentenced Union to 24 months probation with an underlying jail sentence of 13 months and 12 months post-release supervision. Convictions such as this one may also result in a period during which the defendant is prohibited from being paid wages through a government health care program.
An investigation revealed that Union billed Medicaid for services provided as a personal care attendant to her sister while also being employed by four other businesses. There were approximately 670 dates that the defendant claimed more than 24 hours of services to her sister, several of those 670 claims were for more than 40 hours of service in a single day. The defendant also billed for services while her sister was a hospital inpatient. The crimes occurred between March 2010 and December 2014.
Assistant Attorney General Stefani Hepford of Schmidt’s office prosecuted the case against Union.