Speech therapy firm owner accused of Medicaid fraud

The owner of a Jonesboro firm that has provided speech therapy to schoolchildren was arrested after an investigation found that he billed the state Medicaid program for more than $55,000 in services that were not provided, state Attorney General Leslie Rutledge announced Monday.

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Emmitt Paul Milam, 45, the owner of Therapy Solutions of NEA, was found to have submitted bills for 635 hours of speech therapy from December 2013 to February 2014 that were not provided, Rhonda Swindle, an investigator in the attorney general's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, wrote in an arrest warrant affidavit.

The firm employed therapists that provided services at several locations, including the Rivercrest, East Poinsett County and Marked Tree school districts and Crowley's Ridge Educational Service Cooperative, the affidavit says.

The attorney general's office began investigating the firm after an audit by the state Office of Medicaid Inspector General found that 22 percent of the firm's Medicaid billings for December 2013 lacked any supporting documentation, the affidavit says.

An audit in 2008 also found a lack of documentation for services billed, the affidavit says. Milam responded to that audit by completing a corrective action plan indicating that he would not bill without verifying documentation, the affidavit says.

Department of Human Services spokesman Amy Webb said Milam's ability to bill Medicaid was suspended after the department was notified by the inspector general's office last week about a credible allegation of fraud.

Milam was booked into the Pulaski County jail on Wednesday and was released on $2,500 bond, a jail spokesman said.

Metro on 08/18/2015

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