A Hampton man was sentenced to nine years and three months in prison for healthcare and unemployment fraud schemes that resulted in nearly $1 million in loss. Jamahl Rennelle Burch, aka Jarod or Jerrod Burch, 43, pleaded guilty on Aug. 29 to conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, healthcare fraud, and aggravated identity theft. According to court documents, from May 2015 through November 2023, Burch targeted and defrauded two different government benefits programs: Virginia Medicaid’s consumer directed care program and Virginia’s unemployment program. Burch targeted Medicaid recipients to sign up for Medicaid reimbursed personal care or respite care services. Burch and his co-conspirators executed agreements that designated numerous different individuals as personal care attendants (PCAs) for those recipients.
Burch used the personal identifying information (PII) of the Medicaid recipients and purported PCAs to create accounts for the submission of timesheets for purported personal care and respite care services. For over eight years, Burch submitted fraudulent timesheets to Medicaid showing thousands of hours of personal care and respite care services. Burch approved these timesheets, attesting that services were provided, when he and his co-conspirators knew that none of the PCAs provided any personal or respite care services to the Medicaid recipients. In total, Burch and his co-conspirators knowingly caused Medicaid to pay at least $936,950.70 in fraudulent reimbursements for personal care and respite care services that never occurred.