Former Non-Profit Executive Charged with Health Care Fraud

TOPEKA, KS—A former executive with a Topeka-based non-profit corporation has been charged with scheming to steal more than $2 million in Medicaid funds, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said today.

Jason Sellers, 43, Lyndon, Kansas, is charged in a criminal complaint filed today in U.S. District Court in Topeka with one count of wire fraud.

“Health care fraud drives up the cost for all patients and consumers,” Grissom said. “In partnership with the state, my office is working to protect and strengthen the entire health care system.”

The complaint alleges that while Sellers was chief financial officer of Kansas Health Solutions he diverted Medicaid funds to Advanced Business Consulting, which was a shell company he created. Sellers fraudulently billed Kansas Health Solutions for information technology services ostensibly performed by the sham business. He also billed Kansas Health Solutions for sports equipment and uniforms for sports teams with which he associated, as well as computer equipment for the local school, for him, and for his family.

From about 2007 to 2011, Sellers was involved with several Topeka area sports teams. He served as the boys’ basketball coach at a local school. He also worked with the United States Speciality Sports Association as manager of a USSSA baseball team and assistant coach of a USSSA softball team. In addition to billing Kansas Health Solutions for sports equipment and uniforms for sports teams, Sellers used some of the stolen money to build and furnish a $375,000, 3,755-sq.ft. home on 11 acres in Lyndon, Kansas.

Medicaid funds are state and federal monies that were administered in Kansas by the Kansas Health Policy Authority and the Kansas Department of Health And Environment, Division of Healthcare Finance. In order to manage community-based mental health services for Medicaid recipients, Kansas Medicaid contracted with Kansas Health Solutions in Topeka. Kansas Health Solutions was responsible for overseeing a provider network that provided all community-based health services covered under the contract with Kansas Medicaid.

If convicted, Sellers faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Service, the FBI, and the Kansas Attorney General’s office investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Tanya Treadway is prosecuting.