Rochester Woman Accused of Stealing $185K in Medicaid Funds While Working for Mower County

Rochester, MN (KROC-AM News)- A Rochester woman is facing eight felony charges in connection with a Medicaid Fraud Scheme. 

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Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced the charges on Thursday. A formal criminal complaint was also filed Thursday in Olmsted County Court.

42-year-old Jessica Jean Arneson is charged with seven counts of theft by false representation and one count of attempted theft of public funds by false representation. She's alleged to have committed the theft beginning the Spring of 2020 through the Summer of 2023.

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The court document alleges Arneson stole $185,000 while working as a Medicaid care coordinator for the Mower County Department of Health and Human Services in Austin. 

Arneson’s role involved being a case manager for qualified Medicaid recipients in Southern Minnesota. Mower County would contract with a third party to provide services with the eligible recipients.  

Medicaid rules allowed her to be reimbursed for time she spent coordinating care for persons with behavioral health needs. 

Mower County would convert documentation detailing Arneson’s work into claims and would be subsequently reimbursed by the third party. Part of the reimbursements were earmarked to be Arneson’s wages. 

Charges Detail Rochester's Woman's Scheme to Steal Medicaid Funding

The charges allege Arneson billed for services that were never provided. 

Her reimbursements were “significantly higher” than other case coordinators with a similar work load and lacked supporting documentation, the attorney general’s office says. 

An investigation by the state’s Medicaid Fraud found some of the clients Arneson claimed to have provided services for had left the state of Minnesota. She is also accused of claiming to provide services for clients up to 14 months after their deaths. 

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In all, Arneson is accused of billing 1800 fraudulent service hours. Arneson is being charged by summons, according to the court document. 

She’s scheduled to make her first court appearance in August.