The owner of Middle Georgia Family Rehab who directed two employees to illegally alter documents during a federal civil investigation into alleged improper healthcare billing by the business has been sentenced to prison and ordered to pay restitution. Brenda Hicks, 59, of Lizella, Georgia, was sentenced to serve 12 months and one day in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release. In addition, Hicks was ordered to pay $191,645.20 in restitution to TRICARE, Medicare, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Medicaid and the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). According to court documents and statements referenced in court, an outpatient rehabilitation facility owned by Hicks—Middle Georgia Family Rehab, LLC (MGFR)—was served with a Civil Investigative Demand (CID) requesting various patient records on Oct. 7, 2019. After its receipt, Hicks set up a meeting about the CID with two MGFR employees. Hicks told the employees it was an “audit” and explained that MGFR did not have the records that were requested. She then instructed them to go into the system and pull any portions of the requested files, looking for hard copies of the records in MGFR’s storage unit if needed.
Many of the requested records were either blank or missing. Hicks explained that if the records were not there or had not been signed, the employees were supposed to create or sign the records. For example, if the records were missing progress notes, Hicks instructed the employees to make them up by copying and pasting the narrative language from other progress notes to fill in the missing information. These narrative sections were supposed to contain unique information from each session, such as the patient’s pain level and what exercises were performed at the visit. One employee expressed concern to the other employee that what they were doing was illegal and quit. The other employee complied with Hicks’ instructions and added notes and signatures to patient records as needed. These doctored patient records were then produced to the Civil Division of the US Attorney’s Office on Dec. 2, 2019, in response to the CID. Hicks now admits that she conspired to corruptly alter patient records with the intent to impair the integrity of those records and their availability for use in a civil action.
