The owner of one of the District’s largest non-emergency medical-transit companies has been arrested on federal charges that he used Medicaid numbers of deceased persons to bill taxpayers for rides to clinics, doctors’ offices and other health care providers.
Akube W. Ndoromo, chief executive of District-based Voice of Social Concern Association Inc., was arrested on Friday on charges of health care fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and making false statements.
He faces up to 20 years in prison on the wire-fraud count, 10 years each for health care fraud and money laundering, and five years for making false statements, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District.
Mr. Ndoromo’s company is also charged in the case.
In more than 200 instances, Mr. Ndoromo’s company billed taxpayers for non-emergency Medicaid transportation for patients who already were dead, according to court records filed by prosecutors.
Mr. Ndoromo’s arrest came more than a year after authorities raided his apartment in Northwest, seized his vehicles and froze more than $1 million from his personal and company bank accounts.
Mr. Ndoromo, who on Friday pleaded not guilty in federal court in the District, could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Last year, he denied any wrongdoing in response to questions from The Washington Times about his billing practices.
Calling himself “a victim of my own success,” Mr. Ndoromo told The Times that the investigation into his company stemmed from a misunderstanding about its billing procedures.
“There is totally zero fraud,” Mr. Ndoromo told The Times in August.
Mr. Ndoromo disputed using deceased individuals’ Medicaid numbers to bill for services. He said some of the claims that his company submitted were dated when the company processed the information, not on the day of the actual ride.
Raised in Kenya, Mr. Ndoromo said he came to the U.S. in 1996 and moved to the District from North Carolina in 1999. He said he became a U.S. citizen and then founded the Voice of Social Concern as a nonprofit organization.
The company was incorporated in 1999. It became a licensed D.C. Medicaid provider in 2001, authorities said.
Within a few years, the Voice of Social Concern ranked among the top billing non-emergency Medicaid transportation companies in the District, court records show.
In 2003, the company received about $625,000 from the city’s Medicaid program. Meanwhile, a typical Medicaid transporter received about $60,000, court records show.
From 2002 to 2004, the District’s Medicaid program paid Mr. Ndoromo’s company $1.6 million, records show.
Mr. Ndoromo attributed the earnings to hard work and a system in which he paid drivers based on the number of pickups they made, rather than an hourly rate.
However, federal investigators think that fraudulent billing formed the foundation for the company’s fast rise.
In addition to questioning Medicaid numbers belonging to deceased individuals, investigators questioned a pattern of billing for rides on major holidays and during a major snowstorm in February 2003.
Prosecutors called the $1.6 million paid to the company in two years “staggering,” according to an affidavit filed in connection with the seizure of Mr. Ndoromo’s bank accounts.
The indictment charges Mr. Ndoromo and his company with using Medicaid revenue to fund “personal bank accounts, purchase automobiles and to pay for a variety of personal items and expenses.”
For years, the D.C. government relied on a contractor, Affiliated Computer Services Inc. (ACS), to screen and process claims from Medicaid transportation companies.
The District last year announced plans to establish a new system to arrange for rides “in-house” rather than contracting out the work.
In response to questions about the investigation, D.C. Medicaid officials have said that ACS properly screened and processed claims submitted by the Voice of Social Concern.
ACS said it cooperated in the investigation.
Agencies investigating the Voice of Social Concern and Mr. Ndoromo include the FBI, the U.S. Postal Service and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
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