$4.6 Mil Medicaid Fraud Case Trial Delayed

The California trial of a Marlborough woman accused of participating in a $4.6 million Medicaid fraud case has been pushed back to June.

Fe Filart, 59, is charged with health care fraud and conspiracy to commit health care fraud.

U.S. District Court Judge Gary Feess continued the trial to June 29, according to court documents.

A June 25, 2009, indictment alleges that unlicensed nurses provided services to disabled California Medicaid patients, many of them children with cerebral palsy or other developmental disabilities, from 2004 to 2007. Filart was one of the unlicensed nurses, who all operated out of southern California, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

U.S. Attorney Thomas O'Brien said he believes the case to be the largest alleging fraud of Medi-Cal, the California Medicaid program, ever filed in the state.

The organizer of the ring, Priscilla Villabroza, pleaded guilty in federal court in 2008 to five counts of health care fraud, O'Brien's office said. Villabroza and others allegedly hired unlicensed nurses to provide care to disabled patients and then billed Medi-Cal nearly $4.6 million as if they were licensed.

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Marlborough Woman's Medicare Fraud Trial Postponed to June