PHOENIX — An Arizona couple was sentenced to prison Monday after a jury found them guilty of defrauding the state’s Medicaid system.
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Thvoughn and Alexis Curry were engaged in fraudulent billing practices while operating an outpatient clinic in Mesa that serviced members of the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the agency providing health care to low-income residents.
AHCCCS paid the clinic over $12 million for billing reimbursements sought by the defendants between 2021 and 2023, court records show.
But investigators learned the clinic was billing, on average, for 12 hours of services per day on one member, despite only being open for eight hours a day. Furthermore, prosecutors claim the defendants routinely utilized a “billing formula” with no correlation to any services actually rendered, court records show.
Prosecutors claim the defendants spent much of the AHCCCS money on expensive cars and multiple properties, including a home worth $800,000.
In addition, officials said the defendants were not completely honest when initially applying to enroll as an AHCCCS provider.
Alexis Curry was sentenced to 70 months in federal prison followed by 36 months of supervised release. Thvoughn Curry was sentenced to 88 months in prison followed by 36 months of supervised release.
As part of the sentencing, the defendants were ordered to pay $12 million in restitution to AHCCCS.
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Cases of fraud targeting AHCCCS have been gaining attention from Arizona officials over the last few years after the state suspended several providers on suspicion of fraudulent activity.
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