Oklahoma Specialist Charged With Medicaid Fraud

A Midwest City woman is accused of ripping off Medicaid.

The Oklahoma Attorney General's Office said Shenice Huff targeted children on Medicaid and used them to bilk the government out of $20,891.88 from May 2012 to November 2012.

The charges were filed Thursday and Huff was arrested Friday on three counts of Medicaid Fraud as well as one count of identity theft.

Huff is a behavioral health rehabilitation specialist and contracted to provide counseling services to Medicaid children.

The AG's office said Huff posed as a teacher's aide at Tender Care Learning Center in Meeker.

Mykel Fry, the chief of the AG Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, said Huff lied to parents to get them to hand over their Medicaid billing numbers, then charged Medicaid for counseling she never provided to the children.

Read the affidavit

"It was a scheme that was hatched purely for financial gain," said Fry. "It was a very lucrative scheme up until that parent went to go get services for their child and then realized they had already been billed for those services."

The AG's office said the real victims are the kids.

Fry explained that the children Huff defrauded may need counseling later on, but their Medicaid credits have now been used up.

Another unintended consequence of the scheme, according to Fry, is one of the children could have a bogus mental health diagnosis on their record that affects employment down the road.

"The kids, the Medicaid kids, are the ones who suffer," said Fry.

According to the affidavit, Huff said she was frustrated about being interviewed by the AG's office.

The court documents stated," She admitted that she did not bill correctly when she worked for Motivational Counseling and said she did not know any better at the time."

Huff worked at Motivational Counseling as an office employee, then transitioned to providing behavioral health services to Medicaid recipients as a contractor, which is how she came across the Tender Learning center.

She admitted in court documents that she "did not always provide individual sessions to the children at Tender Care as billed."

Ed Blau, Shenice Huff's attorney, released a statement to News 9 that said, "We deny these allegations and as it is very early in the case, we feel it would be inappropriate to comment at this time."

If convicted, Huff faces up to 14 years in prison and/or more than $162,000 in fines.

In October, News 9 reported on Huff when she was charged with embezzlement in the city of Spencer.

10/11/2013 Related Story: Three Spencer City Employees Charged With Embezzlement

Huff was the city clerk and is accused of stealing $2400 from the city in 2011.