Janet Olatimbo Akindipe, 62, of Laurel, Maryland, was sentenced to 13 months in prison for defrauding the DC Medicaid program out of more than a quarter million dollars. She was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release and pay restitution in the amount of $269,808 and a forfeiture money judgment for $119,773. At various times between November 2014 and June 2020, Akindipe was employed by six different home health agencies to serve as a personal care aide for DC Medicaid beneficiaries. The home health agencies employed Akindipe to assist Medicaid beneficiaries in performing activities of daily living, such as getting in and out of bed, bathing, dressing, and eating.
Akindipe was supposed to document the care she provided to the Medicaid beneficiaries on timesheets and then submit the timesheets to the home health agencies, which would in turn bill Medicaid for the services that she rendered. Between January 2015 a nd June 2020, Akindipe caused the DC Medicaid Program to issue payments totaling $269,808 for services that she did not render. As part of her fraud scheme, she submitted false timesheets to different home health agencies purporting that she provided personal care aide services that she did not provide. She claimed she provided such services during times when she actually was working her shift as a full-time employee at the National Institutes of Health. She claimed to work more than twenty hours in a given day on more than 300 occasions. She also claimed to provide personal care aide services in the District of Columbia on days when she was not even in the United States. As part of her fraud scheme, she paid kickbacks to get Medicaid beneficiaries to sign falsified timesheets.
