Woman defrauds more than $600,000 with therapist ex-husband's Medicaid number
KATY, Texas - A woman from Katy was indicted after the U.S. Attorney's Office says she used her therapist ex-husband's Medicaid provider number to defraud more than $600,000 worth of unprovided counseling services as well as steal patient information.
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Kay Le Farmer, 47, was arrested Wednesday and made her first appearance before a magistrate judge in the afternoon. This came after a federal grand jury returned a 22-count indictment on June 9, which was unsealed following her arrest.
According to court documents, Farmer was the former office manager for her ex-husband, a therapist, and Medicaid provider. After they separated, officials said Farmer used her ex-husband's Medicaid provider number to submit fraudulent claims for counseling services that were never provided.
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The alleged claims submitted by Farmer were for almost $617,000 in unprovided psychotherapy services between 2013 and 2018. Farmer was paid about $432,924 from those claims.
Farmer is suspected to also have used her job at a pediatrician's office to gain access to patient information and then submit more false claims using her ex-husband's Medicaid provider number in 2017.
The investigation was conducted by the Texas Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General.
If Farmer is convicted, the 47-year-old could face up to 10 years in federal prison with a possible $250,000 maximum fine for each count of health care fraud.