A Georgia man, Kenneth Terrell Harrison, has been sentenced to 52 months in prison after admitting his crimes.
According to the Department of Justice, the 45-year-old Harrison admitted that he owned an outpatient behavioral health counseling service, Aurtism, LLC, located in Mesa. Aurtism applied to be a medical provider for AHCCCS, Arizona’s Medicaid agency, in 2019. At the time Aurtism applied to AHCCCS, Harrison admitted that he did not disclose his ownership interest in Aurtism to AHCCCS because he was worried that if he accurately described his involvement as the primary owner of the business, AHCCCS would deny the application based upon Harrison’s prior criminal history.
Harrison further admitted that he engaged in a fraudulent billing practice targeting AHCCCS. Specifically, starting in January 2020, Harrison began obtaining AHCCCS identification numbers for AHCCCS enrollees, some of whom visited the Aurtism facility, while others he obtained fraudulently. Nearly all of the AHCCCS enrollees billed for by Harrison were members of the American Indian Health Plan (“AIHP”). Aurtism fraudulently billed AHCCCS for services that were never provided to the AHCCCS enrollees.
Between January 2020 and October 2021, Aurtism fraudulently billed AHCCCS for $6,538,485.09.