8 accused in schemeWomen charged in Medicaid payment case By Andy Paras (Contact)
The Post and Courier
Friday, November 14, 2008
MONCKS CORNER — Eight women are accused of scamming the government out of more than $17,000 in Medicaid payments. A spokesman for the South Carolina Attorney General's Office says the women, all employees of DynCorp International office at the Naval Weapons Station in Goose Creek, under-reported their salaries in order to be eligible for the benefits. Mark Plowden with the Attorney General's Office said the case is still under investigation. He said there have been no allegations that the DynCorp was involved. A company spokesman could not be reached for comment. Plowden said the investigation began in late August when a case worker in the Charleston Medicaid office noticed some irregularities. Authorities have charged: -- Melinda Stephens, 42, of Givhans Road in Ridgeville, with conspiracy, computer crime and seven counts of forgery. -- Maryann Jenkins, 32, of Bridge Creek Drive in Goose Creek, with conspiracy and 12 counts of forgery. -- Leslie Kirkland, 24, of Green Meadow Drive in Goose Creek, with conspiracy and filing a false Medicaid application. -- Crystal Smalls, 45, of Bacons Bridge Road in Summerville, with conspiracy and filing a false Medicaid application. -- Trena Weaver, 32, of Dogwood Hill Drive in Goose Creek, with conspiracy and filing a false Medicaid application. -- Corinne Ackerman, 30, of Cannon Avenue in Goose Creek, with conspiracy and filing a false Medicaid application. -- Jennifer Griffin, 41, of Snow Goose Circle in Goose Creek, with forgery. -- Amy Johnson, 31, of Astoria Circle in Herndon, Va., with forgery and filing a false application. |
Article tools
|
|
Notice about comments: Charleston.net is pleased to offer readers the ability to comment on stories. We expect our readers to engage in lively, yet civil discourse. Charleston.net does not edit user submitted statements and we cannot promise that readers will not occasionally find offensive or inaccurate comments posted in the comments area. Responsibility for the statements posted lies with the person submitting the comment, not charleston.net. If you find a comment that is objectionable, please click "suggest removal" and we will review it for possible removal. Please be reminded, however, that in accordance with our Terms of Use and federal law, we are under no obligation to remove any third party comments posted on our website. Full terms and conditions can be read here. |
Comments
This article has 13 comment(s)
|
Posted by HomeGirlie on November 14, 2008 at 5:29 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I'm sure for every one of the women filing false claims there is someone who got denied benefits for lack of funding. Throw the book at them they should be ashamed.
Posted by oldglory on November 14, 2008 at 6:46 a.m. (Suggest removal)
What irregularities?
Posted by JohnS on November 14, 2008 at 8:12 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Should have waited until Jan. Obama would just give them the coverage without having to lie on the application.
Posted by metallic on November 14, 2008 at 8:14 a.m. (Suggest removal)
This is good to hear, but there is a lot more fraud in "assistance" programs that needs to be investigated.
One place where there needs to be some major investigations is with people receiving "food stamps."
I suspect huge numbers of the people on the food assistance program have under reported their incomes to qualify.
All the government needs to do is compare the data they already have on file with the IRS with the income claimed when people apply for these "assistance" programs.
In fact, there should be a serious verification process before any assistance starts -- and continued "re-verification" for all the people on the programs.
Posted by ColdBud on November 14, 2008 at 8:26 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Agreed metallic. Waste, fraud and abuse in our social programs are astronomical. It's bad in just about every government managed program. It's good to see someone looking in to the issue.
Why no pictures of the suspects?
Posted by havesense on November 14, 2008 at 8:31 a.m. (Suggest removal)
For every one of them there are thousands more who have done similiar. Especially for medicaid, food stamps, and WIC. In my opinion, you have to consider that & you also have to consider that all they were trying to do is get their medical bills paid, which we all know are absolutely ridiculous these days.
I'm kind of partial to this due to astronomical medical bills I've recieved for things like blood work, xrays, etc. etc. I wish medicaid would've covered mine!!
Posted by eyfigueroa on November 14, 2008 at 10:56 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Interesting. There are always calls to cut off the welfare queens and here you have DoD Contractors, making a decent wage, committing what is essentially a white collar crime.
Why no pictures indeed.
Is it because the Post & Courier will be hard pressed to continue running articles and their corresponding race baiting headlines that always cause the comments section to devolve into the equivalent of a race war, especially if these women aren’t the quintessentially stereotypical Welfare Queens?
Hmmm, interesting indeed.
Posted by JLWDALFAN on November 14, 2008 at 3:08 p.m. (Suggest removal)
WE HAVE TO FIX THE LOOP HOLES IN THESE PROGRAMS. YOU SHOULD HAVE TO SHOW PROOF OF WHAT YOU MAKE EACH MONTH. I CAN'T BELIEVE THESE FREE LOADERS WOULD HAVE THE HEART TO DO THIS, KNOWING THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO REALLY NEED THIS HELP
SOCK IT TO THEM.
Posted by davjrt on November 14, 2008 at 4:47 p.m. (Suggest removal)
the sad part is that most of them charged were all making over 45,000 a year and have been working at Dyncorp all for over at least 5 years
Posted by give_it_a_rest on November 14, 2008 at 6:53 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I don't know how much money these women make per year,or what situations these women were in.While I don't agree with committing fraud. I believe the problem is that the problem lies within the goverment itself, if you are a single mother or father working two jobs and still falling short you should be able to get some asstance if needed. In order to get assistance you have to be sitting home on your sorry behind everyday and popping out babies left to damn right and probably have no will to get out and work and take care of yourself. Then you can get all the welfare food stamps and medicaid you want, but people who work hard and are trying to make it out here can't get help with anything.
Posted by bighead on November 14, 2008 at 8:14 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I do agree with Metallic, there are many people out there that are abusing the systems. The government needs to make the qualifications a lot more difficult, maybe not difficult, but manage those that are on the program on a regular basis. People's lifestyles change, so why not have them prove qualifications atleast every 2 months. Maybe we would have fortunate discovered and the ones that really need it get the assistance they need. If these women actually make $45,000 per year or even more if they were married and the falsified documentation then they desire to be thrown in jail and pay the price of stupidity. I would never risk my family and/or kids. The ones that may suffer now are the kids b/c they will have a parent in jail to go visit.....How disguisting!
Posted by tmsfits on November 14, 2008 at 9:22 p.m. (Suggest removal)
ColdBud...you know damned well why there were no pictures of the accused...they're black, and we all know it is racist to point out black people commiting crimes.
Posted by davjrt on November 15, 2008 at 1:40 p.m. (Suggest removal)
they were black and white ..i use to work with all of them