Woman admits to Medicaid fraud, agrees to pay millions in restitution
A woman pleaded guilty Monday in Las Vegas to Medicaid fraud and agreed to pay $7.5 million in restitution and costs, according to records and her attorney.
Ariell Dix admitted to counts of Medicaid fraud in three separate cases and also agreed to plead guilty to counts of attempted racketeering and obtaining and using the personal identifying information of an older person for an unlawful purpose, her plea agreements show.
She agreed to pay restitution totaling $6 million to Nevada Medicaid, plus $1.5 million to the Nevada attorney general’s office for enforcement costs, according to her plea agreements.
Defense attorney Chris Rasmussen said Dix is serving a sentence for Medicaid fraud in the Arizona prison system and is expected to serve a year in the Clark County Detention Center after completing her Arizona time.
Rasmussen said other defendants are involved in the case, too.
“What they’re admitting to doing is opening up care facilities, behavioral service facilities, and billing more than they should have been billed and billing for patients that didn’t get the type of treatment that was outlined in the billing,” he said.
Ky Plaskon, a spokesperson for Nevada Medicaid, said in an email Tuesday that the state could not comment on “information obtained as a result of an investigation.”
The new Office of the Medicaid Inspector General “is working diligently to identify fraudulent activity through updated data analytic processes and improved provider and recipient outreach strategies to prevent future provider overpayments,” the email said.
Rasmussen said the plea deal was the most complicated he had been involved with in 27 years as an attorney.
He also questioned “how this one person or a group of people were able to extract so much money without anybody realizing what was going on.”
Dix’s sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 8 in Clark County District Court.
Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.
