judge using gavel

The owner and operator of an Atlanta-based home healthcare provider has been sentenced to more than five years in prison for defrauding the Medicaid program out of almost $1 million.

Diandra Bankhead of Elite Homecare previously pleaded guilty to one count of healthcare fraud. She was sentenced to five years and three months in federal prison, plus three years of supervised release. She also was ordered to pay $999,999 in restitution.

According to the Department of Justice, between September 2015 and April 2018, Bankhead submitted thousands of fraudulent claims for services that were never provided to medically fragile children under the Georgia Pediatric Program. Elite Homecare submitted to the Georgia Medicaid program more than 5,400 GAPP claims, the majority of which were fraudulent, for which Elite received $1.2 million in reimbursements, the Department of Justice said.

“Not only did [Diandra Bankhead] deny care to children in need, she also stole from a Medicaid program taxpayer dollars that should have gone to those who need them,” said Chris Hacker, special agent in charge of FBI Atlanta.

This article originally appeared on McKnight's Senior Living