Las Vegas Criminal Defense Blog

Last month a thirty-year-old health care worker pleaded guilty to Medicaid Fraud in Mesquite. She was sentenced to a year of probation, three days in jail, and over three thousand in restitution. The case was prosecuted by the Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, which also investigates claims of violations of Nevada elder abuse law.

Nevada elder abuse law makes it a crime to subject a person of sixty years of age or older to abuse, neglect, isolation or exploitation. Well-meaning family members and health care workers are often wrongfully accused of this crime. Common defenses include accident, false accusations and self-defense.

The penalties for violating Nevada elder abuse law depend on the nature of the abuse and the defendant's criminal history. For instance, a first offense of elder isolation is a gross misdemeanor, carrying up to one year in jail and/or up to $2,000 in fines and restitution. But a subsequent offense is a category B felony carrying two to ten years in prison and maybe $5,000 in fines plus restitution.

For more on this story, go to: http://www.mesquitelocalnews.com/viewnews.php?newsid=6021&id=11

Last month, a health care worker was sentenced in a Medicaid fraud case prosecuted by the Nevada Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. The worker allegedly wasn’t providing services at patients’ homes when she claimed she had been. In August she pleaded guilty to the gross misdemeanor of failure to maintain adequate records, and she’s ordered to pay $4,400 in restitution and other costs, will be on a three-year probation, and will face a 60-day suspended jail sentence.

The Nevada Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit is responsible for investigating and prosecuting cases of Medicaid fraud as well as violations of Nevada elder abuse law. Nevada elder abuse law makes it a crime to inflict pain, injury or mental anguish on someone sixty years old or more. It also outlaws exploiting them, using undue influence to control them, keeping them isolated and neglecting them.

Anyone convicted of physically abusing an older person in Nevada may be charged with a gross misdemeanor for a first offense, carrying up to a year in jail and/or up to $2,000 in fines. Subsequent offenses are category B felonies, punishable by two to six years in prison. But if substantial bodily or mental harm or death results, even a first offense can be brought as a category B felony as well, this time carrying two to twenty years.

Some professions, such as physicians and social workers, are legally required to report suspected cases of violations of Nevada elder abuse law. If they knowingly or willfully neglect to do so, they face misdemeanor charges of up to six months in jail and/or a $1,000 fine. As long as they acted in good faith, they can’t then be prosecuted for reporting suspected cases of elder abuse that ultimately turn out to be unfounded.

Read more about the health care worker’s case at http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/feb/24/health-worker-gets-probation-medicare-fraud-case/