Medicaid Fraud Control Unit files charges on mother-daughter duo

OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit has filed charges on a mother and daughter who allegedly ran multiple Medicaid fraud schemes from their behavioral health counseling company.

Lexie Batchelor, 59, of Atoka, is charged with three counts of Medicaid fraud and one count of identity theft, and Heather Doss, 43, of Tulsa is charged with one count of Medicaid fraud and one count of identity theft.

According to court documents, between 2010 and 2016, the two were submitting false claims to the Oklahoma Health Care Authority (OHCA) in numerous ways.

Both Batchelor and Doss submitted claims for services that took place in Oklahoma clinics, when airline records reflected both were out of state.

Batchelor and Doss are also accused of fraudulently using client Medicaid identification numbers to submit false claims. Agents found 197 client identities fraudulently used to submit claims.

The investigation also uncovered Batchelor’s use of an alter ego, who served as a clinician named Lexie George, to double bill for services. When filing the claims, Batchelor said both she and George would independently work on patients. 

Batchelor is also accused of changing service codes on invoices to reflect higher cost services. She would guise rehabilitation services for psychotherapy sessions, which reimburse at a higher rate.

Attorney General Mike Hunter said the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit will continue cracking down on practitioners who run afoul of the law.

“Healthcare fraud costs state taxpayers millions of dollars per year and is an affront to the patients who entrust healthcare providers with their care,” Attorney General Hunter said. “Thanks to the work of attorneys and investigators in the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, these two will not be able to deceive any more Oklahomans.”

All defendants are innocent until proven guilty. 

For more information on Lexie Batchelor, click here: http://bit.ly/2vX7jQT.

For more information on Heather Doss, click here: http://bit.ly/2vLWb9K.

Prior Trouble

In 2016, following a Medicaid fraud lawsuit, a federal judge ordered LXE Counseling and Batchelor to pay more than $4.6 million in damages for similar practices.