A former Snohomish adult care center operator has admitted making false statements on Medicaid billings, and was sentenced Thursday to 240 hours of community service.
The state Attorney General’s Office accused Gail Ann Austin, 57, of Bellevue of making false statements and first-degree theft, according to Snohomish County Superior Court documents. The theft charge was dropped when she pleaded guilty recently, assistant attorney general Tony Rugel said.
Charges were filed in April after an investigation by the state’s Criminal Justice Division, which prosecutes fraud and patient abuse in the state Medicare system.
Austin was licensed to run an adult family home, Country Side Adult Care in Snohomish, until the facility closed in 2002. Austin reopened the facility in Bellevue under the name Austin’s Home Health Care.
Court documents alleged that one resident moved out of her Snohomish business into a friend’s home, but Austin kept billing as if he continued to live in the Snohomish facility.
The resident returned to her Snohomish business periodically to pick up medications, documents say.
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