Former executive director of Ohio company sentenced to prison for health care fraud

Alfonzo Bailey, 40, of Euclid, Ohio, was sentenced recently to 36 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Pamela A. Barker, after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud. Bailey was also sentenced to three years of supervised release, a $100 special assessment and restitution of $3,465,643.33.

According to court documents and the sentencing hearing, Bailey founded Eye for Change Youth and Family Services in 2016 and provided a wide range of services to clients such as mental health counseling, case management, job training and supportive housing.

Beginning in 2017, Bailey and his defendants conspired together to execute a scheme to defraud The Ohio Department of Medicaid by obtaining payments on false claims. To execute the scheme, Bailey encouraged his staff to create false progress notes for counseling services not actually rendered to patients in order to bill the Ohio Department of Medicaid.

Search warrants were executed at Eye for Change Youth and Family Services in 2020, which led to the indictments of 21 defendants including Bailey.

The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cleveland, the Department of Health and Human Services - Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG) and the Ohio Attorney General’s Healthcare Fraud Section. This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael Collyer and Edward Brydle as well as Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Metzler.