A 52-year-old Richmond resident has pleaded guilty to four counts of falsifying medical records. Pate Opara admitted that from February 2018 through July 2019 she repeatedly created fake medical records in response to Medicare requests for information. Opara operated P and P Health Care Services, also known as Opnet Health Care Services Inc., a home healthcare agency. Opara was also a nurse and an administrator for Opnet. Opnet was a Medicare provider and billed Medicare for home health services it purportedly rendered to Medicare beneficiaries. Medicare periodically requires providers to submit documentation supporting requests for payment. By law, this documentation must be created at the time claimed services are rendered, and must be retained for approximately six years after. When a provider fails to submit requested documentation, Medicare will generally deny the provider’s claim and recoup any money already paid to the provider. When Medicare requested supporting records from OPNET—records OPNET did not have—Opara and her co-defendant created the records by forging the signature of a former employee of OPNET, without the former employee’s knowledge or consent. Opara then submitted the falsified records to Medicare, causing Medicare to be fraudulently billed approximately $10,925.04. Medicare went on to pay OPNET approximately $7,300.52 on these fraudulent claims.
