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Toshirea Jackson of Bridgeport has pleaded guilty in Bridgeport district court to one count of healthcare fraud for participating in a scheme involving two businesses she co-owned in Connecticut.
Beginning in 2012, Jackson and Juliet Jacob operated Transitional Development and Training and It Takes A Promise in Bridgeport, which provided social and psychotherapy services.
U.S. Attorney John Durham said that an investigation into the two businesses found that the two billed Medicaid for services that were never provided. As part of the scheme, Jackson and Jacob used the Medicaid provider numbers of two licensed health care providers who had neither rendered nor supervised any of the psychotherapy services that Jackson and Jacob billed to Medicaid, he said.
“The investigation further revealed that, in March 2012, Nikkita Chesney, who was employed by a health care provider that provided substance abuse treatment, including a detoxification program in Bridgeport, began to steal the personal identification information of Medicaid clients who were patients of her employer,” Durham noted. “The personal identifying information included the patients’ Medicaid identification number, Social Security Numbers and dates of birth.”
In total, Jackson, admitted to stealing the identities of more than 150 Medicaid clients, half of which were billed successfully.
Jackson, 49, remains released on a $25,000 bond. When she is sentenced, she will face a decade in prison and has agreed to pay $2,496,618 in restitution. No return court date has been announced. In October, Jacob pleaded guilty to one count of health care fraud for her role in the scheme and a separate Medicaid fraud scheme. On Oct. 23, Chesney pleaded guilty to one count of health care fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. Both await sentencing.
Durham noted that five others have been charged and convicted of health care fraud offenses as a result of this and related investigations.
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