A former Fort Bend County resident has been indicted on federal charges of healthcare fraud and money laundering in connection with a now-defunct South Texas ranch where multiple counties sent individuals in lieu of jail time.
Brandy Kaye Hernandez, former CEO of Inspired Behavioral Health, is accused of scheming to defraud Medicaid from August 2018 to November 2022. Hernandez allegedly submitted approximately $114 million in claims to Medicaid and related organizations for services that her business did not actually render or were not medically necessary, according to the indictment. Hernandez and her co-conspirators pocketed nearly $36 million in reimbursements from those claims, according to the indictment.
“We’re pleading not guilty,” Wendell Odom Jr., Hernandez’s attorney, told the Chronicle on Thursday. “We’ve been discussing these things with the government for five years. We are surprised this indictment came down. It’s not going to be a simple matter.”…