The owner of a Jonesboro speech therapy clinic is accused of billing Medicaid for services that weren't rendered, authorities said.
Emmett Paul Milam, the 45-year-old owner of Therapy Solutions of NEA, was arrested last week on a single count of Medicaid fraud, a Class B felony.
According to a probable cause affidavit filed by an investigator with the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit within the Arkansas attorney general's office, about 22 percent of Milam's clinic's December 2013 Medicaid billings were found to have no documentation.
Investigator Rhonda Swindle wrote in the affidavit that the clinic's office manager would routinely submit Medicaid billings after receiving the proper documentation from staff therapists.
Swindle wrote that Milam would then follow up some weeks later with new claims suggesting additional therapy had been provided that hadn't yet been billed.
"This pattern continued with several Medicaid recipients for at least three months from December 2013 to February 2014," Swindle wrote. "The investigation found no documentation to support services billed for 2,540 units of service during those three months. Interviews with therapists and Milam revealed the services billed with no progress notes were never provided."
A unit of service is defined as 15 minutes of therapy, the affidavit said, noting $55,270.40 was fraudulently billed to Medicaid for services "that were neither rendered nor reimbursable."
A message left for Milam at the Jonesboro office wasn't immediately returned Monday afternoon.
The affidavit said a 2008 audit of the clinic also revealed a lack of documentation on Medicaid claims. Milam agreed then that "he would not bill without verifying documentation," Swindle wrote.
Pulaski County jail records show Milam was booked into the facility Wednesday and subsequently released on bail.