TAMPA, Fla. – United States Attorney Maria Chapa Lopez announced the unsealing of an indictment charging Joshua Maywalt, 40, Tampa, with 4 counts of health care fraud and 4 counts of aggravated identity theft. Maywalt faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison for each of the health care fraud counts, and up to 2 years’ imprisonment for the aggravated identity count. The indictment also notifies Maywalt that the United States intends to forfeit $2.2 million dollars and real property located at 5346 Northdale Boulevard, Tampa, Florida, alleged to be traceable to proceeds of the offense.
According to the indictment, Maywalt was a medical biller at a local company that provided credentialing and medical billing services for its medical provider clients. In that capacity, Maywalt was able to access and utilize the company’s financial, medical provider, and patient information. Maywalt was assigned to a Tampa Bay-area physician’s account (“Physician #1”) and was responsible for submitting claims to Florida Medicaid HMOs for services rendered by Physician #1 to Medicaid recipients.
The indictment alleges that Maywalt abused his role as a medical biller by wrongfully accessing and utilizing the company’s patient information and Physician #1’s name and identification number to submit false and fraudulent claims to a Florida Medicaid HMO for the medical services purportedly rendered by Physician #1, which were not actually rendered. Maywalt also altered the “pay to” information associated with the Florida Medicaid HMOs’ payment processor so that the payments for the non-rendered medical services were sent to bank accounts under Maywalt’s control.
An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed one or more violations of federal criminal law, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless, and until, proven guilty.
This case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – Office of the Inspector General, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Florida Medicaid Fraud Control Unit – Office of the Florida Attorney General, and the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation. It will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Maria Guzman and Suzanne Nebesky.