A former public defender from western Iowa has been sentenced to five months in prison for defrauding Medicaid and cancer patients.
In June, a federal grand jury in Nebraska charged Iowa-licensed attorney Cassi Wigington with healthcare fraud. Prosecutors alleged that beginning in 2012, Wigington fraudulently sold medical equipment such as custom-made breast prosthetic devices for women who had undergone mastectomies.
In some cases, she allegedly had customers sign, in advance, receipts for the delivery of prostheses that had yet to be provided. In other cases, prosecutors alleged, she forged the customers’ signatures. She then sent bills for the undelivered devices to various insurers, including Medicaid, Blue Cross-Blue Shield, Aetna and United Healthcare…