Marion City Council member charged with Medicaid fraud

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) – Oct. 2, 2020 - Attorney General Alan Wilson announces that Latashia (Tassie) Vasthi Lewis was charged on September 25^th with Medical Assistance Provider Fraud. Lewis turned herself in that morning to the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center in Richland County.

Lewis is a member of the Marion City Council. She is charged with filing false claims under the Medicaid program. The arrest warrant alleges that, between November 1, 2019 and May 1, 2020, while working as a home health aide for Addus Healthcare, Lewis submitted fraudulent time entries indicating that she had provided care to a client when she had not. The fraudulent time entries caused the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services to pay Addus Healthcare for services that the defendant did not perform. Addus Healthcare then paid Lewis for the time documented in the fraudulent time submissions.

Filing a false claim by a medical provider is a misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a fine up to $1,000. (SC Code of Laws 43-7-60)

Attorney General Wilson stressed that all defendants are presumed innocent unless and until they are proven guilty in a court of law.