When his sister died in 2021, Vicente Lopez of East Orange took sole control of her psychological counseling company. The company, Joyce Lopez & Associates, took in about $3.48 million from more than 34,000 Medicaid claims for services that were not rendered, state officials say. Lopez, 64, will spend three years in New Jersey state prison.
A psychiatrist’s name on claims the psychiatrist never saw
The company once provided psychological counseling to Medicaid patients. The New Jersey Attorney General’s office says neither Lopez nor the company was an approved Medicaid provider. Lopez submitted or caused the claims anyway. The release does not say what year the billing began or how long it ran, only that he took sole control after his sister died in 2021.
The HHS inspector general’s enforcement listing describes the case as filing thousands of false Medicaid claims and receiving approximately $3.48 million in fraudulent payments. It credits Attorney General Davenport and the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor with the announcement and files it as a state action dated October 22…