The Attorney General’s Office announced that Jennifer Cote, 45, of Montpelier, Vermont, was sentenced to 12 to 36 months imprisonment after entering guilty pleas for one felony count of neglect of a vulnerable adult and one felony count of Medicaid fraud. The charges, brought by the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud and Residential Abuse Unit (MFRAU), stem from Ms. Cote’s former employment as a personal care assistant for a young Montpelier man through the Vermont Medicaid Children’s Personal Services waiver program. Ms. Cote, a former Licensed Nursing Assistant who provided in-home services, failed to bring the young man to scheduled medical appointments on more than eight occasions or to obtain medical assistance for skin ulcerations that he had developed. As a result of Ms. Cote’s conduct, these injuries progressed, threatening the young man’s health and constituting serious bodily injury. The young man subsequently passed away. Ms. Cote was also sentenced for submitting a fraudulent timesheet to Vermont Medicaid for payment on which she represented that she had performed certain hours of care when, in fact, she had not provided care.
