A Silver Spring, Maryland, man pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud in connection with a scheme that billed D.C. Medicaid for mental health services that were never provided or were grossly inflated, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro announced.
Said Nassor, 46, entered his guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan in U.S. District Court in Washington. According to court documents, Nassor was employed beginning in August 2022 as a Community Support Worker at a D.C. Medicaid provider authorized to deliver mental health rehabilitative services to youth and adolescent beneficiaries.
From approximately January 2022 through at least February 2025, Nassor conspired with company employees and other community support workers to submit false and fraudulent reimbursement claims to D.C. Medicaid, according to court documents. Nassor and other workers were directed by company employees to bill the maximum number of units allowed for each consumer, regardless of medical necessity or whether the services were performed.
Community support workers were instructed to bill a full hour for every telehealth encounter no matter how long the call lasted and were trained to shave a few minutes off each claim — for instance, billing 54 minutes instead of 60 — to make the calls appear more realistic. Workers were also directed to bill three hours, and later one hour, for diagnostic assessments regardless of the actual time spent with the consumer, according to court documents.
From July 27, 2022, through June 23, 2023, Nassor documented more than 701 hours of telehealth services across six patients when call records showed that he had spent roughly 172 minutes with them on the telephone, according to court documents. On Oct. 21, 2024, Nassor created and billed for three telehealth encounters involving an undercover FBI employee posing as a patient. None of the encounters took place.
Investigators determined that Nassor’s participation in the conspiracy resulted in a loss to Medicaid exceeding $250,000.
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