(KNOX) – A East Grand Forks woman is one of seven people being charged in a Minnesota Medicaid Fraud Crackdown. 39-year-old Jessica Wavra is facing five felony theft charges for allegedly billing more than $29,000 for mental health and case management services she did not provide. She received $10,000 in wages.
She’s claimed to provide mental health services through Alluma, a mental health service program based out of Crookston. Wavra submitted documentation that she met with several patients for dozens of telehealth visits. Alluma did an internal audit and found that there were multiple instances that Wavra’s documented telehealth services times on her progress notes were not corroborated by phone or Zoom logs.
Court documents included interviews with several patients, who say that she was “horrible with communication, spotty with services and a flaky worker.” It was also mentioned that most patients met in person and did not meet on Zoom.
Alluma referred Wavra based on this conduct to UCare to determine if there was a credible allegation of fraud. UCare’s investigation corroborated what Alluma found and UCare placed Wavra on a payment withhold.
UCare would then refer Wavra to Minnesota’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.
Warva is one of seven people charged as part of a joint effort that included the Department of Justice and more than 40 state Medicaid Fraud Control Units. Minnesota’s unit charged seven individual providers accused of more than $700,000 combined in Medicaid fraud.
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