Top prosecutor: Hartford social worker charged with Medicaid fraud

Oct. 7--A Hartford social worker was arrested Monday on fraud charges after she bilked Medicaid of more than $150,000, a chief state's attorney's spokesman said.

Kathleen Service, 63, of Hartford, used other social workers' names to bill for services the government health care program would not pay her to provide, spokesman Mark Dupuis said.

Service was charged with one count each of first-degree larceny by defrauding a public community, health insurance fraud and first-degree identity theft, Dupuis said. She also was charged with two counts of third-degree identity theft. She posted $100,000 bail and is due in Superior Court in Hartford on Oct. 17.

According to the warrant for her arrest, Service, a master's-level social worker and principal of Unlimited Family Services LLC of Hartford, was told in December 2017 that master's-level social workers were no longer eligible to bill Medicaid for counseling.

In July 2018, the state Department of Social Services notified the chief state's attorney's Medicaid fraud unit that Service appeared to have been using the credentials of other providers, unbeknownst to them, the warrant said. Inspectors learned she had used the credentials of three other providers to collect more than $151,960 for 1,722 counseling claims.

Medicaid is a federal and state taxpayer program that provides health care to low-income individuals.

First-degree larceny by defrauding a public community and first-degree identify theft are Class B felonies punishable by up to 20 years in prison, Dupuis said.

Third-degree identity theft is a Class D felony punishable by up to five years in prison, while health insurance fraud is an unclassified felony punishable by up to five years in prison, he said.

The case will prosecuted by the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. Unit members received assistance from the Department of Social Services Office of Quality Assurance and the New Britain Police Department, Dupuis said.

Christine Dempsey can be reached at cdempsey@courant.com.

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