Shrewsbury woman who cared for disabled son charged with Medicaid fraud

A Shrewsbury woman who was receiving medical assistance payments to care for her disabled son was charged Wednesday with Medicaid fraud and related offenses.

Sandra Fabie, 56, was arraigned and then released  Wednesday after promising she would appear for her court hearings.

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The attorney general's office investigated Fabie after receiving a tip. 

Fabie could not be reached for comment Thursday.

According to the arrest affidavit:

Fabie's son suffered severe brain trauma during a vehicle accident in 1999 and he has insurance through Medicare and Medicaid.

Fabie has provided medical care services to her son from 2004 through October 2017. She was paid as a direct care worker through a program allowing an attendant, who can be a family member of the person needing care, to be paid to provide the care, such as bathing, dressing and meal preparation. The attendant is paid with medical assistance dollars.

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Fabie was paid $11.80 per hour for about a year from 2015 to 2016, and then paid $12.51 per hour from Jan. 30, 2016 through October 2017. She completed and signed bi-weekly timesheets that documented her hours.

Investigators learned that Fabie's son had been hospitalized or in an inpatient rehabilitation facility from May 19, 2015 through June 11, 2015, and from March 29, 2016 through April 15, 2016. But Fabie "billed as though she provided attendant care services to" her son "in their home during both of these inpatient hospitalizations and subsequent rehabilitations," an investigator wrote in the arrest affidavit.

Fabie allegedly submitted claims for more than 450 hours that her son was hospitalized, and was paid more than $5,000 for that time, during which she couldn't have provided her son care since he was hospitalized, an investigator noted in the affidavit. 

Fabie also used the address of another residence she owns on the paperwork she filed, despite not living at the other address. Fabie told investigators that the Glen Rock home she owns is used only when she has parties. But by putting that Glen Rock address on documentation she submitted for billing, she was able to get paid overtime hours for caring for her son.

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A domestic service worker who resides in the employer's home, such as Fabie and her son do, is exempt from overtime pay. By using the Glen Rock address on her documentation, Fabie was able to be paid time and a half, for a total of $2,618.42 per week. 

Investigators learned that Fabie has been paid more than $7,000 in overtime payments, but they didn't say for what time frame those payment were made. 

Investigators installed "covert electronic surveillance" at the intersection of Snyder and Tome roads in Glen Rock from July 19 through Aug. 7, 2017 to watch the secondary residence Fabie owns. Investigators saw that during the surveillance, there were no days that any vehicle went up the driveway of the secondary address Fabie claimed as her primary residence. But every day except Sunday, a vehicle that matched the description of Fabie's came to the residence to get mail. 

Fabie was charged with Medicaid fraud, theft by deception and tampering with public records or information. Her preliminary hearing is scheduled for Nov. 1 before District Judge Nancy Edie.

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