For Medicaid fraud, woman to go to jail, pay $370,426

A 62-year-old Little Rock woman on Thursday dropped her legal challenges to criminal charges of Medicaid fraud and failure to keep records, and promised to pay $370,426 in fines and restitution in exchange for a 10-year prison sentence, Attorney General Dustin McDaniel announced.

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The charges against Frenchelle Chapple were the work of the attorney general's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, McDaniel said in a news release. Chapple pleaded no contest to the charges Thursday in an appearance before Pulaski County Circuit Judge Barry Sims.

The probe that led to her December 2013 arrest discovered that she had filed 1,063 fraudulent claims for speech pathology services she claimed she was providing to Medicaid beneficiaries under the age of 21. The money she collected went into a bank account Chapple controlled and was used to buy gas, groceries, fast food and clothing, investigators said. The charges together carried a maximum of 26 years in prison.

"This is an egregious example of an individual violating the trust of beneficiaries and the Medicaid program," McDaniel said in the release. "I am pleased with this sentence and that the Medicaid program will be reimbursed by this individual. I am proud of our Medicaid Fraud Control Unit for securing this conviction, and I know our investigators will continue to protect tax dollars that fund Medicaid."

Court records show the scheme went on from August 2012 until late April 2013. Chapple ran Great Expectations Developmental Center in Little Rock. Investigators found that Great Expectations submitted Medicaid claims for services that were supposed to have been performed by three speech pathologists.

The three, all former Great Expectations employees, told investigators they did not provide speech therapy to any beneficiaries during that time and nor did they authorize the company to bill Medicaid on their behalf.

Chapple will have to pay $92,606 in restitution and $277,820 in fines as part of her plea agreement.

Metro on 12/19/2014

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