Press Release

Anchorage Personal Care Attendants Convicted for Fraudulently Billing Medicaid

March 26, 2013

March 21, 2013, Forty-four year-old Samphoun Tes and Fifty-one year-old Penina Tes, both of Anchorage, were sentenced by the Anchorage District on a single count each of committing Medical Assistance Fraud. Samphoun and Penina Tes were both ordered to pay a $1,500.00 fine, 180 days of suspended jail, and 40 hours of community work service. They were placed on probation for a period of five years. The court also ordered that Samphoun and Penina Tes pay the State of Alaska restitution in the amount of $8,365.00. Samphoun and Penina Tes are both ineligible to work for or bill Medicaid for providing personal care assistance services in the future as a result of this conviction.

The case against Samphoun and Penina Tes was based upon an anonymous report that Samphoun Tes bragged that he was being paid by Medicaid to provide care for his parent who resided in Cambodia. Personal care attendants are individuals (often times family members) that Medicaid pays to provide home-based care services to Medicaid recipients, allowing the recipient to stay in their home as opposed to a nursing home setting. The Alaska Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU), in conjunction with Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE), verified that Samphoun Tes billed Medicaid on two different occasions in 2007 and 2008 for providing personal care attendant services while the Medicaid recipient was out of the country. Penina Tes signed the timesheets as the Medicaid recipient’s legal representative attesting that the personal care attendant services were in fact provided.

The Alaska MFCU is part of the Attorney General’s Office. The MFCU is responsible for investigating and prosecuting Medicaid fraud and abuse, neglect or financial exploitations of patients in any facility that accepts Medicaid funds. The indictment and information adding misdemeanor counts for each of these cases can be found on the MFCU website.

CONTACT: Assistant Attorney General Andrew Peterson at 907-269-6292. For more information about the Samphoun and Penina Tes case or other cases handled by the Alaska MFCU, go to http://www.law.alaska.gov/department/criminal/mfcu.html.

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Department Media Contacts: Communications Director Patty Sullivan at patty.sullivan@alaska.gov or (907) 269-6368. Information Officer Sam Curtis at sam.curtis@alaska.gov or (907) 269-6269.