ST. LOUIS – A federal grand jury indicted the owner of Touch of the Heart Home Health Care on Wednesday for allegedly defrauding the Missouri Medicaid Program and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs out of more than $800,000 combined.
Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri said Natavia Boyd-Wells, 40, enrolled her business in both the state Medicaid program and the VA’s Community Care Network in 2020 and subsequently submitted hundreds of fraudulent claims for services she knew were never rendered.
Missouri Medicaid and the VA fund home healthcare services so patients can stay in their homes rather than endure long hospital stays or long-term care at nursing homes.
Many of the veteran patients named in Boyd-Wells’ claims were in the hospital and thus could not have received home healthcare service.
The indictment alleges that Boyd-Wells received $197,022 and more than $600,000 in reimbursement payments from Missouri Medicaid and the Department of Veterans Affairs, respectively.
Boyd-Wells was charged with four counts of wire fraud and two counts of making false statements related to a healthcare matter.