A Georgia business owner has been sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison after having been convicted of instructing employees to falsify records during an investigation into healthcare billing practices. Brenda Hicks, 59, of Lizella, directed the illegal alteration of documents at Middle Georgia Family Rehab (MGFR), a rehabilitation center she owned, in response to a federal inquiry, according to a release by the U.S. Attorney's Office.
On Sept. 5, U.S. District Judge Marc Treadwell handed down the sentence, which, besides the prison term, includes three years of supervised release and a restitution of $191,645.20 to a number of agencies, including TRICARE, Medicare, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. It was noted by U.S. Attorney Peter D. Leary, "Tampering with documents in a federal investigation is a serious offense that will not be ignored by our office." This statement, obtained by the Department of Justice's official website, emphasized the commitment of law enforcement to uphold the integrity of federal investigations.
According to the same U.S. Attorney's Office release, the investigation began when Hicks' facility received a Civil Investigative Demand (CID) on October 7, 2019, for specific patient records. Court documents revealed that Hicks convened a meeting with two employees to discuss the CID, calling it an "audit," and informed them of the missing records, urging them to generate the documents by copying notes from other files or simply creating them.
The scheme was exposed when one employee, disturbed by the unethical actions, chose to resign instead of participating. Another employee followed the instructions to falsify records, which were then submitted to the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney's Office. Hicks' conviction resulted from a joint investigation by the Department of Defense, Health and Human Services, Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, and Veterans Affairs, among others. As per the Department of Justice, Hicks admitted guilt for her involvement in a conspiracy to unlawfully alter patient records, aiming to compromise their integrity and availability for a civil case.
