We are proud to name as this week’s Laura Lee & Cutter Weenie of the week, Debbie “Hey what’s that over there” Long from Milwaukee. Debbie managed to defraud Medicaid of so much money that she’s now being offered a job on a president’s cabinet.
Between March 2017 and August 2022, Long allegedly stole almost $2.2 million from Wisconsin Medicaid. Investigators also accuse her of taking out a fraudulent $219,000 low-interest pandemic-era loan from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) under the guise of her in-home care business, Pinnacle Home Health Care LLC.
Prosecutors say she racked up millions billing for home health care services that apparently existed only in her imagination. Investigators say one claim even billed more than 13,000 hours of care for one person… in a single day. That’s impressive. I meaaaaaaaan, not medically possible, but impressive.
Debbie went on to buy a sweet Mercedes, car wash and a frozen custard stand, because nothing says laying low like laundering money and then celebrating with a concrete mixer.
…I feel like the Mercedes might have been the giveaway. Pulling up to a patient visit sounding like Vin Diesel at a stoplight doesn’t exactly scream “humble healthcare provider.”
She’s facing multiple felony fraud and money laundering charges now, which means her next long-term care facility might be one with bars on the windows.
So for.. Treating medicaid billing like a creative writing exercise..
For the combo of greed, audacity, and thinking a 47-hour workday wouldn’t raise questions.
And for proving our long-running idea that car washes are money laundering schemes..
We are proud to name this malicious medicare madam, Debbie Long, as this week’s Laura Lee and Cutter Weenie of the Week.
[Channel 3000][LL&C]
