Asheville man pleads to health care fraud in Va

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A North Carolina man has pleaded guilty to a health-care fraud charge.

Thirty-one-year-old Joseph T. Hackett of Asheville entered the plea Monday in federal court in Richmond.

Federal prosecutors say Hackett owned Richmond-based Access Regional Taskforce, which contracted with Medicaid to provide in-home mental health services for youth and adolescents. Hackett was accused of collecting money from Medicaid for services that didn’t meet the criteria for reimbursement.

He also paid a marketing company more than $545,000 for patient referrals. The owner of the marketing company, Lorie T. Monroe, was sentenced to three years and one month in prison for receiving the illegal payments.

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