Healthcare Compliance Perspective:
Compliance and Ethics Committees must be cognizant of the potential financial value associated with identify theft, and must ensure an effective Privacy and Data Security Program is in place.
A federal jury in Tallahassee found a former nurse who worked in a nursing home for 12 months in 2011 and 2012, guilty of “wire fraud, theft of government funds, possession of unauthorized access devices and aggravated identity theft.” The victims were people and patients at the nursing home where the former nurse had been employed and where she had filed more than “$1 million in fraudulent income tax claims.”
The IRS investigation uncovered a notebook in the woman’s car containing personal information on over 150 people including 26 residents of the nursing home. The woman received about $141,790 in refunds from the 2011 falsely submitted claims. She used this money to pay her personal bills-mortgage, car repairs, and other personal expenses.
The woman’s sentencing hearing for her conviction is scheduled for January 4, and she could receive as much as 20 years in prison for each count of wire fraud, up to 10 years for each theft of government funds and a 2- year sentence for aggravated identity theft.
