Two guilty of health care fraud

Published 10:58 pm Wednesday, September 17, 2014

A Medicaid provider and his wife, formerly of Suffolk, have been found guilty of health care fraud — to the tune of $1.3 million — and other charges after a three-week trial.

W. Wayne Perry Jr., 55, and Angela Perry, 52, were convicted Tuesday afternoon by a federal jury of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, four counts of health care fraud, eight counts of false statements relating to health care matters, one count of alteration of records and four counts of aggravated identity theft.

The Perrys each face a maximum penalty of 118 years in prison when they are sentenced on Jan. 8. They were indicted on Feb. 5.

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According to court records and the evidence presented at trial, W. Wayne Perry Jr. was the owner and operator of Community Personal Care, a business located in Norfolk that was authorized to provide home health care services that are reimbursable by Medicaid, including personal care and respite care services. Angela Perry was an officer and agent of the company.

Between January 2009 and December 2012, Wayne Perry and Angela Perry orchestrated a false billing scheme where numerous fraudulent claims were submitted to the Virginia Medicaid program, falsely representing that personal care and respite care services had been provided to Medicaid recipients by Community Personal Care. A forfeiture provision in the indictment asserts that the amount of the fraud is approximately $1.3 million dollars.

In order to conceal the fraudulent payments, Wayne Perry and Angela Perry altered the company’s office records, including time sheets. This was done with the assistance of Allison Hunter-Evans, a former employee in the administration department of the Virginia Medicaid program, who previously pleaded guilty on May 14 and is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 16.