COLUMBUS, Ohio — A Lake County woman has been sentenced to jail and ordered to repay $775,000 after fraudulently billing Ohio’s Medicaid program, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced.
Neesha Haynes, 40, of Eastlake, was sentenced to 90 days in jail and five years of community control in Franklin County Common Pleas Court. She was also ordered to pay $775,000 in restitution to the Ohio Department of Medicaid.
According to the Attorney General’s Office, Haynes worked as a home-health aide, providing in-home care to 12 Medicaid recipients in the Cleveland area. An investigation conducted by Yost’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit found that she frequently billed the program for services that were never provided.
Investigators uncovered numerous instances of fraudulent claims, including billing for care on days when clients were hospitalized and submitting claims for “impossible days,” in which Haynes reported providing more than 24 hours of care within a single day.
“She inflated her earnings through brazen fraud, but her scheme burst wide open when our investigators got the case,” Yost said in a statement. “Cheating taxpayers comes with consequences.”
Attorneys from the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit prosecuted the case in Franklin County Common Pleas Court.
The Ohio Medicaid Fraud Control Unit receives 75 percent of its funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through a federal grant totaling $16,553,872 for fiscal year 2026. The remaining 25 percent — $5,517,956 — is funded by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office.
