MANSFIELD — The owner of a Mansfield outpatient treatment center for substance-use disorders will spend six years in prison for defrauding the Ohio Department of Medicaid, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced Wednesday.
Geron L. Tate, a Mansfield resident and owner of G L Tate & Associates, was sentenced by Richland County Common Pleas Court Judge Brent Robinson after pleading guilty to one count of aggravated theft, a second-degree felony, and one count of Medicaid fraud, a third-degree felony.
“Cases like this make my blood boil,” Yost said. “This money was designed to help people who are struggling with addiction but instead, he was just stealing it. He deserves every last day of this sentence.”
As part of the plea agreement, Tate will pay $1,572,386.21 in restitution to the Department of Medicaid’s benefits program.
Tate is a longtime and well-known figure in the community. He served as president of the local NAACP from 2016 to 2018. He was also the former president and CEO of UMADAOP, which stands for Urban Minority Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Outreach Program. The program offers a path to drug and alcohol abuse recovery through individualized treatment plans, as well as prevention services.
Tate departed UMADAOP in 2007, long before these offenses were committed between 2015 and 2021. The Mansfield News Journal covered this case extensively. Reporter Mark Caudill’s coverage can be found at this link.
Investigators with Yost’s Health Care Fraud Section determined that Tate billed the Ohio Medicaid program for counseling services that were never rendered. Based on recipient interviews, investigators determined that Tate submitted approximately 5,000 claims for services that were not provided.
Additionally, investigators established that Tate billed for services while he was out of state, and also overbilled for hours in excess of 16 hours of services per day. Agents identified 25 separate times where Tate was traveling out of state, yet he billed that he was providing counseling services in Ohio at the same time.
The Ohio Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit is responsible for the investigation and prosecution of health care providers accused of defrauding the Department of Medicaid’s benefits program.
The Ohio Medicaid Fraud Control Unit receives 75% of its funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under a grant award totaling $14,858,772 for Federal Fiscal Year (FY) 2023. The remaining 25%, totaling $4,952,924 for FY 2023, is funded by the Ohio Attorney General
See the below links for soundbites from AG Yost:
“We go after people that are ripping off the system…”
“This case makes my blood boil because this guy is cheating”
