Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday announced that the former office manager of a Montgomery County-based home care agency, ComfortZone Home Health Care, will serve a prison sentence for her role in a $1.76 million Medicaid fraud scheme.
Barbara Thomas, 46, was sentenced this week in Montgomery County Court to 9 to 23 months in prison, plus four years of probation on felony counts of Medicaid fraud, theft by deception, and corrupt organizations.
As part of the sentence, Thomas is ordered to pay $1.39 million in restitution, jointly and severally with her co-defendants.
According to the investigation, Thomas was the office manager and case manager between 2020 and 2023, when ComfortZone submitted personal care attendant claims to Medicaid for reimbursement, knowing the work was fabricated.
“This defendant had her hands in the day-to-day operations and was integrally involved in the advancement of a multi-year scheme that stole from taxpayers and defrauded a system designed to help vulnerable Pennsylvanians,” Sunday said. “Our Medicaid Fraud Control Section is a national leader in enforcing laws designed to cut down on fraud and abuse of the system, and we take great pride in that work.”
The charges were filed following a two-year, collaborative investigation by the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General Medicaid Fraud Control Section and the FBI. The investigation also involved a presentment from the Fiftieth Statewide Investigating Grand Jury.
Stephanie Mobley owned ComfortZone Home Health Care, an approved Medicaid provider permitted to provide Personal Assistance Services to eligible recipients. Mobley and 20 other co-conspirators were charged in the scheme to defraud the program by submitting claims for services that were never provided.
In total, 18 members of the conspiracy have pleaded guilty, including Stephanie Mobley who awaits sentencing. The cases against three remaining defendants are pending.
The cases are being prosecuted by Senior Deputy Attorney General Benjamin McKenna. The defendants are presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty.
