A medical supply company owner from Valley Stream was indicted for stealing more than $1 million by billing Medicaid for expensive nutritional formula while supplying patients with a lower-priced substitute, authorities said.
Kester Atumonyogo, who owns Brooklyn-based Monack Medical Supply, Inc., was charged with health care fraud, grand larceny, welfare fraud and offering a false instrument for filing, all felonies.
“New Yorkers pay into Medicaid to meet the healthcare needs of the most vulnerable in our communities,” New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said. “They deserve to know their dollars are going to help people, not profit unscrupulous business owners.”
Prosecutors said the 49-year-old man filed false claims to Medicaid and Healthfirst, a Medicaid managed care organization, indicating that his company provided pediatric patients with a highly specialized and expensive prescription nutritional formula intended for babies that must obtain nutrients via a feeding tube when he in fact only dispensed “Pediasure” or similar over-the-counter nutritional supplements, or nothing at all.
The Medicaid reimbursement rate for the specialized formula is higher than off-the-shelf or over-the-counter nutritional supplements, the AG’s office noted.
Atumonyogo also allegedly used two different dates of birth and claimed to have been born in two countries—false identifying information he used to obtain two different social security numbers that he has used interchangeably since the 1990s, prosecutors said. He allegedly used the second social security number to enroll Monack as a Medicaid-participating provider of medical supplies.
Atumonyogo was arraigned Wednesday in Brooklyn court. He faces up to 25 years in prison, if convicted.
