Waveney Blackman, the owner of WaveCare HEalth Services, a company that provided durable medical equipment pleaded guilty today to a federal charge of health care fraud for carrying out a scheme in which she fraudulently obtained more than $9.4 million in District of Columbia Medicaid payments.According to the plea documents, Blackman devised and executed a scheme to submit false and fraudulent claims to Medicaid for durable medical equipment, including incontinence and wound care supplies, which she knew were not purchased or provided to Medicaid beneficiaries. From January 2010 through approximately June 2016, Blackman sent and caused employees to send false and fraudulent invoices to a biller engaged by the company, which were then submitted to Medicaid.Ā All told, she submitted and caused the submission of at least $9.8 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicaid. Blackman, through WaveCare, fraudulently obtained $9,431,979 from Medicaid.
Waveney Blackman, 71, of Bowie, Maryland, pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Her sentencing is scheduled on Oct. 18 before the Honorable Thomas F. Hogan.
Blackman was the sole owner and chief executive officer of WaveCare Health Services LLC, also known as WaveCare Healthcare Services LLC. Ā The company, based in the District of Columbia, was a provider of durable medical equipment, including wound care and incontinence supplies, to Medicaid beneficiaries and others. It became a Medicaid provider in 2008.
According to the plea documents, Blackman used the fraudulent proceeds to obtain properties, including three in Florida and four in Maryland, as well as a Mercedes Benz.
Blackman was charged in a criminal information filed on June 26. The charges were filed as part of the nation’s largest ever health care fraud enforcement action. On June 28, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex M. Azar III, announced results of the nationwide effort. The various enforcement actions involved 601 charged defendants across 58 federal districts, including 165 doctors, nurses and other licensed medical professionals, for their alleged participation in health care fraud schemes involving more than $2 billion in false billings. Of those charged, 162 defendants, including 76 doctors, were charged for their roles in prescribing and distributing opioids and other dangerous narcotics.
