PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Susan Bair Purcell
Deputy Attorney General
(302) 577-8833

Alternate contact: Tim Barron, Director
Medicaid Fraud Control Unit
(302) 577-8804

Date: June 5, 2003

SUSSEX COUNTY MEDICAL TRANSPORTATION PROVIDER GUILTY OF HEALTH CARE FRAUD

(Georgetown, DE): Attorney General M. Jane Brady announces the conviction of the owners and operators of a Sussex County Medicaid Transportation service for health care fraud.

Yesterday, Hattie and Barry Bull of “H and B Transportation” each pled guilty to one count of health care fraud for overstating mileage on patient trips and overcharging Delaware’s medical assistance program. Judge T. Henley Graves sentenced the couple to a five year prison term which he suspended for probation. The defendants were ordered to pay $100,000 in restitution to the state’s medical assistance program and to pay $12,930 to the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit for the costs associated with the investigation and prosecution of this case. They made an initial restitution payment of $25,000 at the hearing.

Attorney General Brady commented, “People who defraud the system affect the cost of healthcare for everyone. We will aggressively prosecute these cases.”

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