West Virginia Woman Sentenced to Nearly 2 Years in Prison for Medicaid Fraud

Vanessa Cattanea of Charleston, W.Va., was sentenced to 20 months in federal prison and three years of supervised release for her role in a Medicaid fraud scheme, according to a report by the Idaho State Journal.

Ms. Cattanea must also pay more than $1 million in restitution. She was convicted in Dec. 2009 on 55 counts of healthcare fraud along with co-defendant Ronald Bret Hamilton, who has since passed away.

Ms. Cattanea was the treatment director for Teton Family Services, an American Falls, Idaho-based company owned by Mr. Hamilton that provided mental health services for children. Ms. Cattanea was charged with knowingly billing Medicaid for services provided by unlicensed staff and for services occurring at locations outside the clinic, neither of which Medicaid covers, according to the report.

Read the Idaho State Journal's report on Vanessa Cattanea.

© Copyright ASC COMMUNICATIONS 2012. Interested in LINKING to or REPRINTING this content? View our policies by clicking here.