Prosecutors Say Golden Valley Business Operator, Employee Defrauded Medicaid

Two people were charged Thursday with defrauding Medicaid at Universal Home Health Care in Golden Valley.

Stephen Jon Rondestvedt, 58, of Minneapolis, was charged with one count of health care fraud, according to a news release from Jeanne F. Cooney, director of community relations for the U.S. Attorney's Office of Minnesota. Mustafa Hassan Mussa, 56, of Minnetonka, was charged with one count of aggravated identity theft.

Prosecutors say from Feb. 18, 2008, to December 2010, Universal employee Rondestvedt submitted false reimbursement claims for personal care services, which resulted in a loss to Medicaid of about $55,000.

Prosecutors also say that on May 26, 2009, Mussa, Universal's operator, used the identification of a Medicaid recipient to submit fraudulent bills to Medicaid, Cooney said. The Medicaid recipient was not receiving services from personal car attendants at the business.

"The claim submitted in May 2009 was allegedly one of a substantial number of similarly fraudulent claims submitted to Medicaid through Universal between 2008 and 2010," according to Cooney's statement.

Universal Home Health Care did not respond to a request for comment.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U. S. Attorney David M. Genrich. It was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Health and Human Services—Office of Inspector General and the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit at the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, according to Cooney.

"If convicted, Rondestvedt faces a potential maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, and Mussa faces a mandatory penalty of two years in prison," according to Cooney.