Claremont man gets prison time for Medicare fraud
Mar. 13—A Claremont man — one half of a couple charged with defrauding New Hampshire Medicaid out of more than $40,000 — has been sentenced to prison time for his role in the scheme, he Attorney General's Office said Thursday.
Joseph Bye, 32, was sentenced in Merrimack County Superior Court to 1 1/2 to 3 years in state prison on a Medicaid fraud (false claims charge), followed by a consecutive 3 to 6 year state prison sentence, fully suspended for 10 years, on a theft by deception charge.
Bye was also ordered to pay restitution of $21,771.38, and is prohibited from participating in the Family and Friends Mileage Reimbursement Program.
Between July 2020 and July 2022, Bye, 31, and Sara Lapointe, 29, stole a combined $41,606.62 from the New Hampshire Medicaid program by submitting fraudulent claims for mileage reimbursement as part of the Family and Friends Mileage Reimbursement Program.
Bye claimed he was traveling to health care appointments in Concord from Danville, a distance of approximately 40 miles, according to the Attorney General's Office. Lapointe claimed she was traveling to health care appointments at the same facility in Concord from Cornish, a distance of approximately 65 miles, according to prosecutors.
But during that period of time, Bye and Lapointe were living together in Concord, less than 1.5 miles away from the facility, prosecutors said.
Lapointe, 29, was previously sentenced in Merrimack County Superior Court to serve 12 months in the Merrimack County House of Corrections on the Medicaid fraud charge, followed by a consecutive 5- to 10-year state prison sentence, fully suspended for 10 years, on the theft by deception charge.
She was also ordered to pay $19,835.24 in restitution to the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, and barred from participating in the Family and Friends Mileage Reimbursement Program.
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