Georgia man sentenced to 6.5 years in prison for defrauding Medicaid programs in the Carolinas

COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO)– According to United States Attorney Peter M. McCoy Jr., a Georgia man has been sentenced to 6.5 years in federal prison for defrauding Medicaid programs in the Carolinas. Officials say 37-year-old Markuetric Stringfellow was a franchise owner of Wrights Care Services LLC, a South Carolina Medicaid rehabilitative behavioral health services which is headquartered in Columbia with several franchise locations throughout the state.

In April 2014, authorities say Wrights Care became a Medicaid program provider in the state, which allowed the group to submit claims for behavioral mentoring services to be reimbursed by Medicaid. Officials say Stringfellow and his co-conspirators submitted claims for services either not provided, partially provided or that did not qualify for reimbursement. Additionally, investigators say they group submitted falsified patient billing records and medical notes.

In 2015, investigators say Stringfellow met with other associates for a “note party” in which they created false and fraudulent billing records which they submitted in response to an audit.

Investigators say Stringfellow was also involved in another fraudulent scheme in North Carolina, where he and co-conspirators solicited illegal kickbacks from drug testing labs in exchange for referrals of North Carolina Medicaid beneficiaries.

Officials say Stringfellow was sentenced to 78 months in prison and three years of supervised release for defrauding the South and North Carolina Medicaid programs.