United States Attorney Joe Kelly and Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson announced today that Randy Kirby, 61, of Hastings, Nebraska, was sentenced January 17, 2019, to a year and a day in federal prison and ordered to pay restitution of more than $130,000 by Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf in Lincoln, following Kirby’s plea to one count of Health Care Fraud.  He will be on supervised release for three years following his prison term.

Kirby was formerly a mental health therapist in Hastings and operated a mental health practice called Transitions Counseling.  Between September 2013 and September 2016, Kirby submitted false claims for reimbursement to Nebraska Medicaid for services that he could not show had occurred.  Nebraska Medicaid paid Kirby $133,639.57 for those services.  As a result, Kirby was indicted on nine counts of Health Care Fraud.  He pleaded guilty to one count of Health Care Fraud in October 2018. 

The matter was investigated by the Program Integrity Unit of Nebraska Medicaid and the Medicaid Fraud and Patient Abuse Unit of the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office, following a referral by Medicaid contractor Magellan Behavioral Health.  Magellan was concerned about suspicious billings that were submitted by Kirby.