A former billing clerk for a nonprofit health care provider at the center of a federal public corruption investigation has been arrested on one count of Medicaid fraud, the Arkansas attorney general’s office said Tuesday.
Vicki Chisam, 65, of Batesville is accused of making false statements that resulted in Arkansas Medicaid overpaying her employer, Preferred Family Healthcare, by about $589,000 from January 2015 until November 2015. It is a felony charge carrying a potential prison sentence of five to 20 years.
Chisam is the third former Preferred Family Healthcare employee to face state charges as part of a state investigation into the Missouri-based nonprofit, which is at the center of a federal probe that has resulted in guilty pleas of several former lawmakers, an Arkansas lobbyist, a top-level executive and others.
Attorney General Leslie Rutledge’s office in June announced the arrest of Robin Raveendran, the nonprofit’s former director of program integrity, on charges that he scammed Arkansas Medicaid of $2.2 million. In August, Rutledge announced the arrest of Helen Balding, who was director of billing, on accusations that she aided Raveendran.