Tampa Man Pleads Guilty Of Filing False Health Insurance Claims

Tampa FL

07 December, 2021

2:17 PM

Description

TAMPA, FL — A 40-year-old Tampa man could face more than 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to health care fraud after the FBI said he filed false federal income tax returns. Joshua Maywalt pleaded guilty to four counts of health care fraud, four counts of aggravated identity theft, one count of filing a false federal income tax return and two counts of failing to file federal income tax returns. He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison for each health care fraud count, a two-year mandatory consecutive sentence on the aggravated identity theft counts, a maximum penalty of three years for filing a false income tax return and a up to two years for each failure to file an income tax return. Maywalt must also forfeit $2.2 million in funds as well as a property owns at 5346 Northdale Blvd., Tampa. According to court documents, Maywalt was a medical biller at a Clearwater company that furnished credentialing and medical billing services to its medical provider clients. In that capacity, Maywalt was able to access the company's financial, medical provider and patient information. While assigned to a Tampa Bay area physician's account, the FBI said he was responsible for submitting claims to Florida Medicaid HMOs for services rendered by the doctor to Medicaid recipients. The Department of Health and Human Services said Maywalt abused his role as a medical biller by using patient information and the doctor's name and identification number to submit false claims to Florida Medicaid HMO. Maywalt altered the "pay to" information associated with those claims so that the payments were sent to bank accounts under his control. The Internal Revenue Service said Maywalt also signed and filed a false federal income tax return for tax year 2019, substantially understating his income by reporting only his employment wages and not the substantial amounts he was depositing into his bank accounts as a result of his fraudulent activities. In addition, he failed to file federal income tax returns for 2017 and 2018.