Baltimore Home Health Aide Bilked Medicaid: Prosecutors

BALTIMORE, MD — Maryland prosecutors say that a home health care aide, convicted Monday of felony Medicaid fraud, falsely claimed that he was caring for two wheelchair-bound patients when he went on vacation to Puerto Rico and took other trips out of town.

Mark Wilkerson, 41, was sentenced Monday to five years in prison, all suspended, as well as three years probation, and ordered to pay more than $32,000 in restitution to the Medicaid program, Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh announced in a release.

Medicaid is a federal-state health care insurance program that helps pay for health care for low-income individuals of all ages. Frosh noted that the two Medicaid patients who received care from Wilkerson are HIV positive.

Wilkerson worked for Vicenza Home Care Services Inc., based in Nottingham. "He was an authorized provider of services to Medicaid beneficiaries," Frosh said.

The services included in-home personal care, such as assisting with dressing, bathing, grooming, the administration of medicines and other tasks.

From July 2013 through May 2017, Frosh said, "Wilkerson fraudulently represented to Medicaid on more than 150 different occasions that he was caring for his assigned beneficiaries through Vicenza" when he was not doing so.

For example, at various times, Wilkerson told Medicaid that he was caring for one or both of his assigned patients when he was actually vacationing in Puerto Rico, and taking trips to Atlanta and Boston.

Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Melissa Copeland handed down Wilkerson's sentence. As part of his probation, he cannot leave the state without permission.