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(MANSFIELD, Ohio) — The owner of G L Tate & Associates, an outpatient treatment center for substance-use disorders in Mansfield, has been sentenced to 6 years in prison for defrauding the Ohio Department of Medicaid and will repay $1.57 million, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced today.
“Cases like this make my blood boil,” Yost said. "This money was designed to help people who are struggling with addiction but instead, he was just stealing it. He deserves every last day of this sentence.”
Geron L. Tate, a Mansfield resident, was sentenced in Richland County Common Pleas Court after pleading guilty to one count of aggravated theft, a second-degree felony, and one count of Medicaid fraud, a third-degree felony.
As part of the plea agreement, Tate will pay $1,572,386.21 in restitution to the Department of Medicaid’s benefits program.
Investigators with Yost’s Health Care Fraud Section determined that Tate billed the Ohio Medicaid program for counseling services that were never rendered. Based on recipient interviews, investigators determined that Tate submitted approximately 5,000 claims for services that were not provided. Additionally, investigators established that Tate billed for services while he was out of state, and also overbilled for hours in excess of 16 hours of services per day. Agents identified 25 separate times where Tate was traveling out of state, yet he billed that he was providing counseling services in Ohio at the same time.