Two former executives at a South Los Angeles company that offered substance abuse treatment pleaded guilty this week to federal charges alleging they defrauded Medi-Cal by billing at least $2 million for ineligible services.
Mesbel Mohamoud, 47, and her mother-in-law, Erlinda Abella, 66, have each agreed to plead guilty to a federal count of health care fraud, under which they each would face up to 10 years in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The two were named in a 23-count indictment returned by a Los Angeles federal grand jury in March 2018, charging both Inglewood women with 21 counts of health care fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft stemming from the scheme that allegedly ran from 2009 through 2015.
Mohamoud was the owner and executive director of The New You Center (TYNC), while her mother-in-law, who co-founded the now-defunct company, was the firm’s program director. TNYC had contracts to provide medically necessary substance abuse treatment services through the Drug Medi-Cal program to adults and teenagers in Los Angeles County.
The charges primarily involve services provided to girls residing at Dimondale Adolescent Care Facility group homes in Lancaster, Long Beach and in Carson. TYNC was reportedly not authorized to provide counseling at these facilities, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
TNYC submitted bogus bills for counseling sessions that were not conducted at all, were not conducted at authorized locations, or did not comply with Drug Medi-Cal regulations regarding the length of sessions or the number of patients, according to court papers.
Mohamoud and Abella caused TNYC to bill for clients who did not have a substance abuse problem, to falsify documents related to services supposedly provided to clients, and to forge client signatures on documents such as sign-in sheets, the indictment alleges.
Prosecutors allege that TNYC submitted more than $2 million in false and fraudulent claims for group and individual substance abuse counseling services and was paid more than $1.8 million based on those bills
