The sentencing for the federally funded fraudfeasors is taking place. My question to the State of Pennsylvania, more specifically to Attorney General Tom Corbett is this:
Why isn't your Medicaid Fraud Control Unit doing anything? Oh wait, I forgot. everyone benefited in Pennsylvania, including the Attorney General.
What many do not know is the child welfare services, the services that these people who allowed Danieal to be tortured and murdered, are funded through Medicaid. I place the blame on the Attorney General for her unfortunate life and horrendous death, but I am quite sure he will do it again and again, that is do nothing to stop Medicaid fraud in child welfare.
3 to serve time for fraud in wake of Daniel Kelly's death <=== (the paper misspelled her name.)
By GLORIA CAMPISI
Philadelphia Daily News
campisg@phillynews.com 215-854-5935
A co-founder and two employees of MultiEthnic Behavioral Health are being sent to prison in the federal fraud case that stemmed from the fatal torment suffered by Danieal Kelly, a 14-year-old girl with cerebral palsy who starved to death while under the social-service agency's care.
Manuelita Buenaflor, 66, a co-founder of the now-closed agency, yesterday was sentenced to 36 months in prison. Two other employees also were sentenced to jail yesterday by U.S. District Judge Stewart Dalzell.
Buenaflor's job was to make sure that workers for MultiEthnic, which had been contracted by the city Department of Human Services to visit families, filed the proper reports, notes and case reviews.
She admitted in court to concerns that some workers were filing phony reports, dubbed "ghost visits," but she never alerted the city or the workers' supervisors. MultiEthnic employees also were accused of destroying records in a coverup.
The city paid MultiEthnic with money provided by the federal government to oversee social services for 500 at-risk, poor families between 2000 and 2006.
Buenaflor pleaded guilty to wire fraud, health-care fraud, and conspiracy to obstruct an investigation.
The feds said eight of the nine defendants they charged schemed to bill the city for services never rendered. The ninth was charged with perjury.
Besides Buenaflor, Dalzell yesterday sentenced former social worker Christiana Nimpson, 54, to 20 months for wire fraud, health-care fraud, and conspiracy. Sotheary Chan, 41, another MultiEthnic employee, received 15 months for wire fraud and conspiracy. None of the three sentenced yesterday was directly involved in the Kelly case.
Besides malnutrition, bedsores contributed to Danieal's death on Aug. 4, 2006, during a heat wave, officials said.
Danieal's mother, Andrea Kelly, was convicted of third-degree murder and sentenced a year ago to up to 40 years in prison.
Another co-founder of MultiEthnic, Earl McNeill, is scheduled to be sentenced next Thursday. MEBH employee Patricia Burch, who pleaded guilty to perjury, will be sentenced Tuesday.
Others will be sentenced in June.
Two MultiEthnic managers, Mickal Kamuvaka, 60, and Solomon Manamela, 52, and two caseworkers, Julius Murray, 52, and Mariam Coulibaly, 42, were convicted last month on charges of fraud and obstructing a federal investigation.
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