The final defendant pled guilty on Aug. 29 in a healthcare fraud scheme that resulted in nearly $1 million in loss. The Virginia Medicaid Program provides medical assistance to indigent individuals who meet certain eligibility requirements. Under its consumer directed care program, Medicaid authorizes the provision of personal and respite care services to eligible Medicaid recipients by a personal care attendant (PCA). According to court documents, from May 2015 through at least November 2023, Jamahl Rennelle Burch, aka Jarod or Jerrod Burch, 43, of Hampton, identified and selected Medicaid recipients to sign up for Medicaid reimbursed personal care or respite care services.
Burch and his co-conspirators executed agreements that designated numerous different individuals as PCAs for those recipients. The conspirators used the personal identifying information (PII) of the Medicaid recipients and purported PCAs to create accounts for the submission of timesheets for purported personal care and respite care services. For over eight years, the conspirators submitted fraudulent timesheets to Medicaid showing thousands of hours of personal care and respite care services. Burch and his coconspirators approved these timesheets attesting that services were provided, when the conspirators knew that none of the PCAs provided any personal or respite care services to the Medicaid recipients. In total, Burch and his co-conspirators knowingly caused Medicaid to pay at least $936,950.70 in fraudulent reimbursements for personal care and respite care services that never occurred.
