A North Carolina medical billing manager appears to have been caught up in a Medicaid fraud ring and faces 10 years in prison.
Townsend is the co-founder of Townhall Enterprises, which describes itself on its
Facebook page as a "professional medical billing company" that "offers medical billing services for doctors and practitioners in North Carolina."
Townsend's indictment appears to be related to a previous fraud indictment in the same jurisdiction.
Back in September, Cynthia Harlan, Tyree Jones and Claude McRae were
indicted on fraud and other charges connected with mental and behavioral health services providers run by Jones and MacRae through which they and Harlan conspired to defraud Medicaid via claims for services that were not performed, the feds charged.
In this latest indictment, the U.S. Attorney charges that Harlan provided Townsend with billing instructions from other clients, and Townsend "frequently billed two or three times the amount of services he was instructed to submit to Medicaid ..." The feds further charge that providers at the client companies received "millions of dollars" in fraudulent payments, from which Townsend and his company "were compensated by the client agencies for submitting the fraudulent claims."
The U.S. Attorney release adds that Townsend "generally did not follow the instructions provided by Harlan and the client agencies," which may suggest to the cynical-minded that somebody is trying to pin something on someone.
The health care fraud conspiracy charge against Townsend carries a maximum prison term of 10 years and a $250,000 fine per count.