Nevada Attorney General Aaron D. Ford announced that Tonda Renee Ward, 64, of Las Vegas, and her company, Southwestern Health Solutions LLC, were sentenced in a Medicaid fraud case involving submission of false claims and failure to maintain adequate records committed between Dec. 31, 2017, and Dec. 26, 2018. Judge Mary Kay Holthus found Southwestern Health Solutions L.L.C. guilty of one count of Submitting False Claims: Medicaid Fraud, a category D felony. The defendant was ordered to pay $775,000 in restitution, costs, and penalties. Ward was found guilty of Intentional Failure to Maintain Records and was sentenced to 364 days in the Clark County Detention Center, suspended; placed on probation; and ordered to pay an additional $25,000. The investigation of this case began after the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) received information from Nevada Medicaid’s Surveillance and Utilization Review (SUR) Unit that Southwestern was billing as though its service providers were rendering more than 24 hours of service per day. Southwestern also submitted false documentation to Medicaid on behalf of a physician who never worked for the company.
