A Greensboro woman was sentenced Thursday to more than three years in prison for making fraudulent Medicaid claims in 2013 and 2014.
Renee Christine Borunda, 36, who managed a behavioral healthcare company will also have to pay back more than $225,000 to the Medicaid program. She pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health fraud conspiracy and aggravated identity theft, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of N.C. In 2013 and 2014, she used one of the company’s therapist’s personal information to submit fraudulent electronic claims which were submitted from two different companies. The claims falsely represented that the therapist had provided $225,339.08 worth of behavioral services to over 200 different Medicaid recipients who lived in Beaufort, Edgecombe, Greene, Guilford, Lenoir, Mecklenburg, Pitt, and Wilson Counties. No such services were rendered. The therapist was unaware that her information was being used to commit fraud.
“People who cheat Medicaid are cheating taxpayers,” said North Carolina’s Attorney General Josh Stein. “My office will continue our work to protect taxpayers’ wallets and hold these fraudsters accountable.”
The investigation and prosecution of this matter was handled in a partnership between the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina and the Medicaid Investigations Division of the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office. Agents from the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service “ñ Criminal Investigation also participated.
