Tuesday, March 16, 1999
Billing fraud charge admitted
BY SUSAN VELA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
NEWPORT — Robert Carabella admitted Monday in Campbell Circuit Court to billing Kentucky's Medicaid program between May 1994 and April 1997 for tests, appointments and consultations that never happened.
The goal, he said in a written statement, was to have the Kentucky Medicaid Assistance Program pay more money to Bellevue-based Forest Hills Neuropsychiatric Services — where his then-wife, psychiatrist Denise Perone, was chief executive officer — than it deserved.
Mr. Carabella was billing manager, office manager and company treasurer.
“I did this so that the corporation would be paid money to which it was not entitled,” Mr. Carabella said in the statement, which also noted Medicaid billings for physician services that actually were performed by social workers.
Mr. Carabella plead guilty Monday to a count of presenting fraudulent claims to Kentucky Medicaid valued over $300.
A count of devising a scheme to fraudulently obtain $10,000 or more was dropped as part of the plea bargain with the state attorney general's office.
Similar charges against Dr. Perone — who has left the Bellevue offices, divorced Mr. Carabella and continues to be a licensed provider with the Kentucky Medicaid program — were dropped, with the understanding that she will pay back $118,000 to the state Medicaid program.
She already has submitted a $20,000 check and promised to not demand $33,488 in pending Medicaid claims.
She will pay the difference of about $65,000 with monthly payments of about $1,000. The payment plan will begin in June.
Dr. Perone declined comment, but one of her attorneys, Paul Markgraf, said she was not aware of her husband's billing procedures while they both worked for Forest Hills Neuropsychiatric Services.
Mr. Carabella will face one to five years in prison when he is sentenced on May 25. The state attorney general's office is recommending one year.
Darci's model wants doll info
Taft budget asks more for schools
Highlights of Taft's budget
Mystery hero asks: What's all the fuss?
Fatal accident follows funeral talk
Briton guilty in chat-room romance
Cancer center gains weapon
Ex-agent heads hunt for Erica
Little learners look up to 90-year-old teacher
Police seek suspect in check-kite scheme
Shot rattles police program
Lack of rain cuts threat of flooding
Teacher's $1M to benefit Oxford
Bellevue makes plans for 1st St. Pat's Day parade
Billing fraud charge admitted
Butler halts contract for computers
City will help fund holiday light show
Courthouse bidding case may spur new rules
Glendale wants levy feedback
Jillian's hot, and so are neighbors
Lockland paper factory fire was arson, investigators say
Ludlow can't decide use of grant
Madison Twp. site offered for Butler Co. jail
Money approved for NKU center
More time given for police panel applicants
Pals praise city manager at retirement
Price Hill man to plead guilty in resale scam
St. Bernard to get I-75 barrier
TRISTATE DIGEST
