Press Release

Municipality of Anchorage Employee Sentenced to One Year in Jail for Fraudulently Billing Medicaid $64,665.47

January 27, 2014

The Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) successfully prosecuted 37 year old Lorie Nabong Batac for falsely billing Medicaid for personal care attendant (PCA) services. Batac worked full time for the Municipality of Anchorage as a property tax assessor and part time for Home Depot. The evidence collected by the MFCU showed that Batac often billed Medicaid for PCA services she claimed to be providing when she was in fact working at Home Depot or simultaneously billing for services provided to two different Medicaid recipients. The evidence further showed that Batac repeatedly billed for providing PCA services to Medicaid recipients while the recipients were traveling internationally or Batac was travelling domestically to Los Angeles and Hawaii. In total, Batac billed Medicaid $64,665.47 for services that were never performed.

PCAs are enrolled with Medicaid as health care providers that the Alaska Medicaid Program pays to provide home based healthcare services which allow Medicaid recipients to stay in their home rather than be placed in a nursing home type setting. The PCAs are required to fill out a contemporaneous timesheet for the work done. State law prohibits the submission of false timesheets and/or claims for PCA services provided during periods of international travel or unapproved domestic travel.

Based on the aforementioned evidence, Lorie Batac was convicted of one count of Medical Assistance Fraud, a B Felony, for knowingly submitting a claim to a medical assistance agency with a reckless disregard that the claimant was entitled to the payment. Batac was sentenced to serve one year in jail, pay $64,665.47 in restitution, and 10 years of formal probation. Batac will be prohibited from billing Medicaid for any services during this time and placed on a nationwide exclusion list.

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 information filed in each case can be found on the MFCU website. This is just one of 27 convictions the MFCU has secured since October of 2013, resulting in $172,115.86 in restitution for the State of Alaska.

CONTACT: Assistant Attorney General Andrew Peterson at 907-269-6292. For more information about the Batac case or other cases handled by the Alaska MFCU website.

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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.