SUFFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — A Suffolk woman who stole more than $1.3 million in a health care fraud scheme has pleaded guilty.
Whitteney Guyton, 43, pleaded guilty on Monday to count of health care fraud and six counts of making false statements relating to health care matters, the Department of Justice announced.
Federal prosecutors say Guyton defrauded the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services (DMAS), which administers Medicaid in Virginia, from June 2016 to October 2018. Guyton billed Medicaid through her company, Synergy Health Systems LLC, but the company’s records were falsified, incomplete and didn’t comply with Medicaid requirements.
As part of the scheme, Guyton would instruct her workers to forge signatures to seem like they came from a licensed mental health professional and an RN. Prosecutors say about $480,000 that was billed to DMAS had no documentation that any kind of assessment had been done.
She could face up to 10 years in prison when she’s sentenced on Jan. 10, 2025.