OKLAHOMA CITY – Ashley Nicole Brown of Broken Arrow, the owner of an unlicensed home health company and a former employee of another home health company, pleaded guilty to embezzling her coworkers’ payroll funds and their health insurance subsidies.
Tulsa County District Judge Michelle Keely sentenced Brown to 10 years, with seven years in prison and the next three years under the supervision of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections’ Probation and Parole Division.
As a condition of her probation, Brown agreed to not own, manage, or work in the Oklahoma health care industry while on probation, and to pay more than $25,000 in restitution as well as all fines, fees, and assessments associated with her cases.
“This prosecution demonstrates the commitment of the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office to combatting fraud in the Medicaid system,” said Attorney General John O’Connor.
In a 2020 Tulsa County felony case, an Oklahoma Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit investigation discovered evidence of embezzlement of payroll money and state health insurance subsidies intended for Brown’s coworkers.
And in Tulsa County felony case filed earlier this year, the MFCU investigation uncovered evidence that, even after being charged with the crimes in the earlier case, Brown proceeded to operate an unlicensed home health care company in Tulsa.
Preying on an elderly Tulsa couple who hired Brown’s company to provide home health care, Brown used her position of trust to obtain their personal identification information and their bank account debit card numbers. Brown used the victims’ personal information and debit cards without their permission to pay off her personal debts, to pay her family members, and to pay her company.
Brown, a/k/a Ashley Nicole Hayes, 35, still faces a Medicaid fraud charge in Oklahoma County. In addition, she was named in a felony charge filed May 9 in Creek County for jumping bail on two pending 2020 felony counts of exploitation of an elderly couple – by siphoning money from their bank account and raiding their credit-card account – and one felony count of identity theft.
The Oklahoma MFCU has statewide jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute abuse, neglect, drug diversion and financial exploitation of elderly and vulnerable adults. In this role, the MFCU serves as a safeguard against caretakers who abuse, neglect, or exploit vulnerable Oklahomans.
The MFCU also investigates and prosecutes violations of state and federal laws pertaining to provider fraud in the administration of the Medicaid program.
Additionally, the MFCU pursues and monitors whistleblower litigation at the Oklahoma level and on a national level in conjunction with other states’ MFCUs and U.S. Attorneys offices. The MFCU can recover Medicaid funds by pursuing criminal sanctions, civil judgments, or administrative recoveries.
Oklahoma’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit receives 75% of its funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under a grant award totaling $3,424,943 for federal fiscal year 2022. The remaining 25%, totaling $856,235 for FY 2022, is funded by the State of Oklahoma. The federal fiscal year is defined as Oct. 2021, through Sept. 30, 2022.