The Brief
- A Lawrenceville man must pay $330,000 in restitution and serve prison time after pleading guilty to a massive Medicaid fraud scheme involving fake genetic testing claims.
- Averil Johnson, 47, was sentenced to 10 years, with one year in prison, after submitting bogus claims for services that his Tucker lab never provided.
- Authorities say the plot unraveled when an employee made a hotline call to state health officials, sparking an investigation by the attorney general’s office.
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. – A Lawrenceville man faces prison time and a massive financial penalty after pleading guilty to a $330,000 Medicaid fraud scheme involving genetic testing services that were never provided, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr announced Thursday.
Georgia Medicaid fraud
What we know:
Averil Johnson, 47, of Lawrenceville, pleaded guilty to two counts of Medicaid fraud after submitting false bills through his business, National Healthcare Center, LLC. Johnson operated a lab in Tucker, where he prepared fake patient files and false testing orders using the identities of two doctors without their knowledge. Georgia Medicaid repeatedly paid out $1,988.69 per claim for a specific genetic testing code, but interviewed patients denied any knowledge of the tests.
DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Gregory Adams accepted the plea Tuesday and sentenced Johnson to 10 years, ordered him to serve one year in prison, and commanded him to pay $330,000 in restitution. The plot was exposed when an employee nurse called a hotline at the Georgia Department of Community Health, which referred the matter to the state’s Medicaid Fraud and Patient Protection Division for investigation.
Unanswered case details
What we don’t know:…