Show-Me State Times

Three individuals formerly associated with a St. Louis County, Missouri-based home health care company have pleaded guilty to a federal charge related to a health care fraud conspiracy. The trio admitted to fraudulent billing of the Missouri Medicaid program, amounting to over $552,000.

Doriann Morgan, 58, Thalisa Walton, 46, and Barbara Jackson, 59, all from St. Louis County, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of conspiracy to commit health care fraud in three separate hearings at the U.S. District Court in St. Louis. They confessed that between January 2018 and August 2021 they conspired to submit fraudulent reimbursement claims for personal care services that were never provided.

Jackson was the business manager of A Mother’s Touch In-Home Care LLC and was responsible for client recruitment and employee assignment. Morgan owned the company and submitted Medicaid claims while Walton served as office manager. The three are no longer affiliated with A Mother’s Touch In-Home Care LLC which continues its operations under new ownership.

According to their plea agreements, they submitted fraudulent claims for personal care services purportedly provided by Jackson for a woman who did not live in Missouri and received no services. They also submitted claims for providing services at times when their own social media posts indicated otherwise.

In addition to their criminal charges, Morgan, Walton and Jackson agreed to pay $910,000 in a civil settlement to resolve allegations of violating the False Claims Act by billing Missouri Medicaid using false timesheets and payroll records for unprovided in-home services.

"HHS-OIG is committed to protecting our communities and taxpayer funds from schemes targeting Missouri's Medicaid program," said Special Agent in Charge Linda Hanley of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG). She further pledged continued investigation into those threatening the integrity of federal and state health care programs.

The trio is scheduled for sentencing on August 26. The charge carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, or both.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General and the Missouri Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit with Assistant U.S. Attorneys Suzanne Moore and Derek Wiseman prosecuting.