Lancaster Judge Awards State Nearly $800,000 in Medicaid Fraud Case

A former Lincoln-area provider of Medicaid-funded home and community-based services was ordered to pay the state nearly $800,000 in damages for filing false claims with Nebraska Medicaid.

Devon Gibbs and her husband, Christoph Gibbs, were the owners of Love Community, LLC. Love Community contracted with service providers who facilitated shared living arrangements for eligible Medicaid clients. However, at least one shared living provider was not properly enrolled with Medicaid and was not affiliated with Love Community, as required by Nebraska Medicaid regulations. The Gibbs and Love Community also billed for services that were actually being rendered by a different Medicaid provider and failed to maintain and provide documentation that showed what services Love Community, or their contractors actually rendered. The Gibbs and Love Community submitted false claims to Nebraska Medicaid and were improperly paid $221,418.69 for those claims.

The Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud and Patient Abuse Unit sued the Gibbs and Love Community, claiming that they violated the Nebraska False Medicaid Claims Act. On June 12, a Lancaster County District Court judge entered a summary judgment against Devon Gibbs for $664,256.07, which was triple what she was paid by Nebraska Medicaid. The Court also ordered her to pay $115,029,98 in pre-judgment interest. The Court previously entered default judgments against Christoph Gibbs and Love Community when they failed to respond to the lawsuit.

The case was investigated by the Medicaid Program Integrity Unit of the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services and by the Medicaid Fraud and Patient Abuse Unit of the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office. Assistant Attorney General Katherine O’Brien handled the matter for the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office.