Arkansas Medicaid over-biller told to pay or go to jail

Al Gregory Dodds
Al Gregory Dodds

A 56-year-old former counselor who stole from the Arkansas Medicaid program was court-ordered Thursday to pay $250,000 in fines and restitution or face up to 20 years in prison.

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Al Gregory Dodds of Camden had been the highest-paid licensed counselor in the Medicaid mental-health program when authorities discovered the extent of his crimes in July 2015, court filings show.

He had been paid $706,524 between Jan. 1, 2012, and July 24, 2015. He was arrested July 22, 2015. He'd been a service provider since he got his license in 2000.

The licensed medical-health practitioner program serves eligible patients under age 21 who have psychiatric problems.

At least some of the counseling he had been paid to provide was for children, but records do not show how many children or the extent of his practice, either private or publicly funded.

Court records list three cases of children whom Dodds was paid for counseling but who had actually not seen him in months or years.

Dodds pleaded guilty in September to felony charges of Medicaid fraud, failure to maintain records and two counts of theft by deception in a plea agreement negotiated by his attorney, Lott Rolfe IV.

In exchange for Dodds' guilty pleas, prosecutors agreed to leave the sentencing decision up to Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen.

The charges carry a maximum penalty of 46 years in prison and a $45,000 fine. The charging papers show that the thefts, either by overbilling or billing for services he did not perform, occurred over a 2¼-year span.

Under the terms of the 20-year suspended sentence imposed by the judge, Dodds is to start paying his restitution on Feb. 1 at $853 a month.

He does not have to serve any jail time, but Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, whose assistant Emily Abbott prosecuted the case, said in a news release that the judge could impose a 20-year prison sentence if Dodds does not satisfy his obligations.

"Investigators and attorneys from the attorney general's office are dedicated to investigating and prosecuting those who commit Medicaid fraud," Rutledge said in the news release. "I will ensure that those like Mr. Dodds who attempt to defraud Arkansans are held accountable because Medicaid is a critical safety net for some of the most vulnerable in our state."

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As a first-time offender pleading guilty, the married father of two can have the convictions expunged from his record once he completes his sentence.

Among the written character endorsements Dodds provided to the court were letters from Ouachita County Circuit Judge Edwin Keaton and Camden District Judge Phillip Joe Foster.

Dodds, who has a master's degree in counseling, surrendered his 25-year-old professional counseling license in August 2015, about two weeks after regulators suspended him, court records show.

Abbott asked the judge to bar Dodds from ever working for Medicaid-funded programs again.

But Griffen declined, ruling that since Dodds now has no license, he is not qualified to work directly for Medicaid.

The judge found that Dodds will remain eligible to work for any Medicaid provider that will have him as long as he never receives payment directly from Medicaid, court records show.

The investigation into Dodds' billing practices began about three weeks before his arrest with the discovery during a May 2015 audit of his billing by the Medicaid inspector general's office.

The initial findings showed that he had double-billed the program $8,134, representing 77 instances on behalf of 14 clients, court filings show. He could not provide required records showing doctors' referrals of patients, treatment plans and comprehensive assessments of clients.

Dodds' practice was in offices at 277 North St. in Camden, inside the Connection International Ministries Church, also known as the Spirit-Led International Church, where he and his wife, Athenia, are members, court files show.

Questioned about discrepancies, Dodds told investigators that he had been double-billing for services. When asked for further details in writing, he responded with an email admitting "my guilt of double-billing."

"I billed for services I did not render," he said in a July 2015 interview, estimating that he'd been double-billing for about six months.

He first told investigators that he was taking the money out of greed, but also stated that he had needed money to pay off education loans for himself, his wife and their daughters. He initially estimated that he had taken at least $70,000, and gave authorities free rein to search his office and his home.

The investigation subsequently discovered more widespread fraud than Dodds had described, and he told investigators that some of the fake-billing practices began in 2012. He said he started false billing more often in 2014 because he'd never been penalized for it before that.

He said he eventually double-billed for almost every counseling session he provided. Investigators reported that they eventually found $233,212 in questionable billing.

Metro on 12/02/2016

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