BY CAL BRYANT/CHOWAN-ROANOKE NEWS-HERALD

cal.bryant@chowanroanokenewsherald.com

MURFREESBORO, N.C.—The fallout continues from an Internal Revenue Service probe earlier this year at a Murfreesboro, N.C., business.

According to a press release, U.S. Attorney George E.B. Holding announced that the criminal indictment charging Shirlene Reese Boone of Murfreesboro was unsealed.

Boone, making her initial appearance on Wednesday in Federal Court in Raleigh, has been charged with conspiring to commit health care and mail fraud, and failing to collect and pay payroll taxes.

According to the indictment, Boone owned Metropolitan Counseling Services, a registered non-profit that provides community support services and HIV case management.

From 1997 to May of this year, Boone routinely submitted claims for reimbursement to the Medicaid program for community support services and HIV case management that were allegedly false. The indictment revealed Boone instructed employees that they were required to bill 37.5 hours per week of community support or HIV services, or they would not be paid. Boone also instructed employees to draft progress notes that supported the 37.5 hours of reimbursable services.

In several instances, Boone directed MCS employees to fabricate progress notes for community support services allegedly performed by other MCS employees or former employees. In other instances, Boone also directed low-level employees to fabricate notes associated with certain dates of service for Community Support Services, which had already been billed to the Medicaid program. The low-level employees were not sufficiently qualified or licensed to lawfully perform the billed services, according to the court document.

Boone routinely utilized the name and Medicaid identification number of its alleged customers to bill the Medicaid program for the services MCS, allegedly rendered, routinely listing the patient information on documentation, including but not limited to progress notes, associated with claims submitted by MCS to Medicaid.

The indictment also alleges that Boone conspired to defraud the North Carolina Employment Security Commission.

Earlier this month, Darick Lamont Bryant of Ahoskie, N.C., manager of the community support services of MCS, and Lemuel Cobb of Murfreesboro, who served as the HIV Case Manager, pled guilty to charges stemming from the health care fraud conspiracy.

Bryant stipulated in his plea agreement to a loss to the government exceeding $1 million. Cobb similarly stipulated to losses exceeding $120,000.

At sentencing, Bryant faces up to 10 years imprisonment. Cobb faces up to five years imprisonment.

For her role in this case, Boone faces up to 10 years imprisonment.