| Boise, ID – Attorney General Raúl Labrador has announced that an Idaho man was sentenced on Thursday, August 25, for Soliciting and Conspiring to Commit the Crime of Forgery as a part of a scheme to defraud the Idaho Medicaid program. 41-year-old Jeffrey Stoker, of Middleton, pleaded guilty to these offenses on October 6, 2022. Fourth District Judge Lynn Norton sentenced Stoker to a suspended sentence of seven years with one year fixed. He was placed on probation for seven years. The court ordered Stoker to serve 90 days in the Ada County Jail and pay $248,696.33 in restitution, and court costs. Attorney General Labrador said, “I am committed to protecting Idaho taxpayers from fraudsters and ensuring that our citizens have medical resources available when severe needs arise.” Stoker was the owner and operator of Canyon County Home Care, Inc., a company that provided in-home health care services to approved Idaho Medicaid participants with disabilities. Medicaid Fraud Investigators determined that in 2020 Stoker executed a scheme to wrongfully obtain Idaho Medicaid funds for nursing services and assessments that were not being provided. During an audit by the Medicaid Program Integrity Unit, he made false representations and directed billing personnel to make false representations that nursing services were being provided to Medicaid participants who were clients or patients of Canyon County Home Care. Stoker solicited two nurses to fabricate required documentation so that Stoker would appear to be complying with Idaho Medicaid staffing regulations. In one instance, Stoker and a local nurse falsified an employment contract and tax forms to make it appear that she was a full-time employee of Canyon County Home Care. The case was prosecuted by Deputy Attorneys General Kenneth M. Robins and Jessica Cafferty. “I’m proud of our prosecutors and their excellent work in this case,” said Attorney General Labrador. This prosecution resulted from a coordinated effort by the Department of Health and Welfare’s Medicaid Program Integrity Unit, the Idaho Branch of the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit in the Office of the Idaho Attorney General. |
