Nurse Practitioner Accused Of Bilking Medicaid

Jackson, Miss.- Tami Bivens-Johnson, 55, of Corinth, is facing charges of Medicaid Fraud, announced Attorney General Jim Hood today.

Bivens-Johnson turned herself in today to the Alcorn County Sheriff’s Department following a recent indictment by an Alcorn County Grand Jury on three counts of Felonious Medicaid Fraud.

Bivens-Johnson, as a nurse practitioner in Corinth, did willfully, unlawfully and feloniously make, present and cause to be made and presented false, fictitious and fraudulent claims for more than $3,200 in Medicaid benefits, knowing the claims to be false, fictitious and fraudulent.

In Count I, claims for some 57 Medicaid recipients presented for payment and billed as medical services which she represented had been provided in her clinic, are alleged to have been prescription refills done over the telephone. In Counts II and III, It is alleged that Bivens-Johnson filed claims representing that she had provided medical services in her clinic to Medicaid recipients, although she allegedly was in New York (Count II) and Florida (Count III) at the times.

Bivens-Johnson faces 15 years in prison and $150,000 in fines if convicted. She is also required by a provision in the state statute to pay a treble civil penalty in the approximate amount of $9,600. Her bond was set at $10,000 and she waived her arraignment.

As with all cases, the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

The case was investigated by Barrick Fortune and Analysts Mark Branning and Richard Cameron of the Mississippi Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. The case will be prosecuted by Special Assistant Attorney General Sue Perry.