Meriden residents get probation for defrauding Medicaid

Two Meriden residents who defrauded the state Medicaid program of $5,300 have been sentenced to three years of probation, according to state officials.

Eugenio Ortiz, 40, and Maria Perez, 41, were sentenced March 13 after having pleaded guilty to one count each of first-degree larceny by defrauding a public community and health insurance fraud, officials said. They have paid restitution of $2,700 and while on probation will have to repay the remaining $2,600, officials said.

They also were ordered not to act as providers in the Medicaid program, according to officials.

The charges stem from an investigation conducted by the state's Medicaid Fraud Unit that determined Ortiz and Perez, enrolled as providers in the Connecticut Medical Assistants Program as personal care assistants, had billed the state Medicaid program for services they didn't provide, according to officials.

The purpose of the program is to help older adults and others with disabilities to live independently at home.

Between January and June 2020, Ortiz and Perez submitted time sheets to be paid for assistant services that Ortiz supposedly had provided. However, investigators discovered Ortiz couldn't have rendered those services because he was incarcerated at the time for an unrelated criminal conviction, officials said.

"The investigation revealed Perez was submitting the time sheets that Ortiz had signed in advance of going to prison," officials said in a news release.