The Washoe County School District tells Channel 2 News one of two woman arrested Tuesday by the Nevada Attorney General's Office was a substitute counselor for the district. 39-year-old Candia Tolbert is accused of committing Medicaid fraud at her Sparks business. The district says they will no longer use Tolbert as a substitute.
According to court records obtained by Channel 2 News, 39-year-old Candia Tolbert and 43-year-old Tanja Ford are accused of filing false Medicaid claims to the state and then keeping the money.
The criminal complaint we obtained says Tolbert owns and operates 'No Child Left Behind', a mental health company located at 895 Roberta Lane in Sparks, and that Ford was employed by the company as an individual service provider and as a medical biller.Â
The complaint says Tolbert and Ford conspired together to unlawfully use personal information of 20 different Medicaid recipients to get reimbursement from Medicaid for services the company never actually provided. While the exact amount of money the two are accused of taking is not yet known, the duo is also being charged for theft exceeding $3,500 over the course of two years. Records show, Tolbert and Ford are also being charged with failure to maintain adequate documentation of Medicaid records. The Nevada Attorney General's Office accuses them of not maintaining client progress notes, failing to maintain documentation of services provided to their clients and not properly disclosing how much money the company was making off of clients over a five year period.
According to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Channel 2 News, the investigation was launched after several of the company's employees began to notice discrepancies with billing sheets that were being given to them by Tolbert and Ford. According to records, Tolbert and Ford would give the billing employees billing sheets that were already filled out which would contain services for clients that never actually received those services. Those medical billing forms would then be submitted to Medicaid and eventually the company would be reimbursed for those services. Several employees at 'No Child Left Behind' filed written and telephonic complaints with the Nevada Attorney General's Office about those discrepancies. The Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the Office of the Attorney General launched an official investigation into Tolbert and Ford and eventually obtained a warrant for their arrest.
According to the office, the warrants contained an agreement that Tolbert and Ford would be released on their own recognizance once they were processed into the Washoe County Jail. Channel 2 has learned that Tolbert turned herself in while Ford had to be arrested. The two were both booked into the Washoe County Jail on Tuesday.
'No Child Left Behind is still open and operating in Sparks. We made an attempt to get comment from Tolbert or Ford and were told by the company "no comment." The two will have initial appearances in the Sparks Justice Court sometime next week. The Medicaid Fraud Control Unit expects the case will then be advanced to the Washoe District Court.
If found guilty of Medicaid fraud, the two could face up to four years in prison and pay fines up to $5,000, if they are found guilty of the conspiracy charge they could receive an additional six years in prison.
