ATLANTA, Ga. (WTAJ) — From 2012 through 2015, a youth football coach’s “companies” received roughly $2.5 million in reimbursements from Medicaid, all of which were fraudulent.
Matthew Harrell, 44, appeared to be the owner of several mental health businesses that treated young people. But he wasn’t a mental health provider; he was just a youth football coach.
According to a release from the FBI’s Atlanta Field Office, Harrell would take the kid’s information when they signed up for football camp and other after-school activities he sponsored. He would then use that information to bill Medicaid for mental health services that were never actually provided.
What started in Georgia eventually expanded in Florida and Louisiana. Harrell would even open offices and hire staff, reportedly keeping patients “charts” on hand in case he was audited.
Agents report that in Louisiana, Harrell bought a list of 13,000 stolen identities of children who were on Louisiana’s Medicaid program. Harrell used the data to bilk Louisiana’s Medicaid program out of more than a half-million dollars in mental health services never provided.
Harrell reportedly had offices and employees, although those employees didn’t provide care—they simply engaged in fake billing. He would even go as far as interviewing medical providers and workers for jobs that never actually existed.
Harrell didn’t hire any of them, but he used their Medicaid billing numbers without their knowledge.
Neither the parents of the children nor the providers knew Harrell was using their information fraudulently.
The scheme was uncovered when Georgia Medicaid fraud personnel made an unannounced site visit to one of Harrell’s companies. This evolved into a multi-agency investigation involving the FBI, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – Office of Inspector General, and Medicare fraud investigators from Georgia, Florida, and Louisiana.
In December 2019, Harrell pleaded guilty to health care fraud and aggravated identity theft charges. In March 2020, he was sentenced to 11 years in prison. Two of the Georgia participants in the scheme were also convicted on similar federal charges. Another five were convicted on state charges in Florida and Louisiana.
“There is only so much money to go around, and this money was meant to be used for kids who really need help,” Peacock said. “It’s a really important thing to be working on, and we take health care fraud very seriously.”
Gregory Peacock, special agent, FBI Atlanta
For the investigative team, taking down this ring of fraudsters sends an important message.