(COLORADO SPRINGS) — The Colorado Attorney General’s Office said a man who pled guilty to felony Medicaid fraud in October was sentenced on Wednesday, Dec. 4.
According to the Attorney General’s Office, 57-year-old Gulong Craft defrauded Medicaid for $122,441 through falsified medical billing between 2020 and 2023.
In 2023, Medicaid fraud investigators got a case referral related to Craft from the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (HCPF), which administers the state’s Medicaid program. HCPF made the Attorney General’s Office aware of alleged illegal Medicaid billing by Craft’s company, Craft Care, LLC. which was enrolled with HCPF to provide care for Medicaid patients who have intellectual or developmental disabilities.
The investigation found the company had little to no footprint online and neither Craft nor his spouse claimed any wages from the company, and a deeper look found Craft’s billing claims showed a suspicious number of denied claims, and because the denied claims continued for years, investigators found this was likely due to intentional fraud rather than unintentional errors.
An analysis of billing claims, along with interviews with caretakers for Medicaid clients, Craft’s own family members and Craft himself, it was discovered that he billed for services long after he stopped providing care for the clients, in one case for years.
“The biggest victims of Medicaid fraud are usually low-income patients who lean on Medicaid for critical health care services,” Attorney General Phil Weiser said. “In this case, the defendant’s crimes exploited people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. We will remain vigilant in our commitment to protecting Medicaid patients and taxpayers, holding providers who break the law accountable, and recovering fraudulent payments.”
Craft was sentenced to eight years of probation and ordered to pay the defrauded amount of $122,441 as restitution.
Coloradans who suspect or have direct knowledge of Medicaid fraud, or other types of fraud or scams, are encouraged to file a complaint at StopFraudColorado.gov.
