LEXINGTON, Ky. - A Jackson, Ky., woman, Theresa C. Merced,
81, was sentenced to five months imprisonment to be followed by five months of
home detention, and was ordered to pay a $55,000 fine, by Chief U.S. District
Judge Danny C. Reeves, following her convictions for soliciting kickbacks from
a toxicology laboratory in exchange for urine drug testing referrals, lying to
law enforcement agents about the kickback she received, and then attempting to
cover up the kickback by requesting the alteration of certain financial
records.
Merced, the office manager of a substance abuse treatment
clinic in Jackson previously admitted that, between December 2018 and August
2019, she solicited kickbacks from the CEO of a toxicology lab in exchange for
urine drug test referrals. In August
2019 the CEO delivered to Merced a $4,000 check as part of a larger package of
promised inducements, which she caused to be cashed. When Merced was questioned about the check by
law enforcement agents in September 2019, she denied knowledge of it, and
stated that the $4,000 was probably a loan from the lab CEO to her
husband. Shortly after her interview
with the agents concluded, Merced called the lab CEO and asked that he alter
the lab’s financial records so that the entry for the $4,000 check would say
“rent/loan,” consistent with the lie she told the agents.
Under federal law, Merced must serve 85 percent of her
prison sentence and will be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office
for three years. As a special condition
of her supervised release, Merced is prohibited from working in any capacity in
which she influences referrals for medical testing.
Robert M. Duncan, Jr., United States Attorney for the
Eastern District of Kentucky, Derrick L. Jackson, Special Agent in Charge at
the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General,
Atlanta Field Office, and Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron jointly
announced the sentence.
The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, and the Kentucky Office
of Attorney General, Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. The United States was
represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul McCaffrey.
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