Former Ambulette Owner Charged with Fraud
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A federal indictment has been filed charging Rolando Sepulveda with seven counts of health care fraud in connection with the operation of his ambulette company, Med Transportation. Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, and Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, announced the indictment in a joint press release.
Sepulveda, age 51, operated his business out of the Youngstown area and is currently believed to be residing in Puerto Rico, the law enforcement officials said.
Sepulveda is charged with defrauding the state of approximately $406,000 from August 2008 to August 2011, according to the indictment. “This money should have gone to help those who were sick and truly needed transportation,” Dettelbach said.
“That is a huge amount of money that could have been spent on patients who legitimately needed help,” DeWine said. “Instead, this man took that money for himself and left the country.”
Ambulette services contract with the Ohio Medicaid program to transport patients in vehicles known as ambulettes, a specially equipped van designed for wheelchair passengers. Medicaid pays ambulette operators for driving Medicaid patients to and from Medicaid-covered appointments, so long as the patient rides in a wheelchair, a medical doctor certifies the need for the wheelchair and the ambulette meets safety specifications.
Sepulveda is charged with scheming to defraud Medicaid of approximately $406,000.00 by charging Medicaid for rides of patients who did not use or need wheelchairs and for billing Medicaid for ambulette attendants, when no such attendants were used by Med Transportation.
The indictment is the result of an investigation by DeWine’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and the Office of the Inspector General, United States Department of Health and Human Services. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Atty. Chelsea S. Rice and Special Assistant U.S. Atty. Constance Nearhood, an assistant attorney general for the State of Ohio.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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