Baldwin nurse sentenced for overbilling Medicaid

A Baldwin nurse who fraudulently billed Medicaid almost $1 million was sentenced Tuesday to 2 years in prison and ordered to pay back what she stole, according to state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

Roxanne McKen, 45, pleaded guilty in October to billing the state program about $939,000 over seven years for hours that she did not work or that were paid in full by private insurers.

She had been hired to provide home care for a disabled boy in the Bronx, a child who was born with one lung and who suffers from Vater Syndrome, a birth defect that can cause severe pulmonary conditions, seizures and developmental delays.

But from February 2003 to August 2010, McKen admitted, she routinely submitted Medicaid invoices that said she had provided nursing services on weekends that she hadn't worked or when she was actually out of state -- in Florida or even Jamaica, authorities said.

In a year when she billed Medicaid $220,000 for alleged nursing services, McKen underreported her income to Medicaid, saying she was living below the poverty level so she could qualify herself and her children for the low-income health care program, Schneiderman said.

McKen, who was indicted in June 2011, was sentenced in a Queens County court for two felonies, third-degree grand larceny and first-degree offering a false instrument for filing. Her attorney could not be reached for comment Tuesday.