15 Year Sentence in Medical ID Theft Case
Texas Woman Stole IDs From 1,200 Patients
Katina Candrick of LaGrange, Texas, will serve consecutive terms of 10 years on a charge of conspiracy to commit identity theft and five years on unlawful possession of fraudulent identification documents. She was sentenced Oct. 13 after pleading guilty April 29.
From July 6 through Nov. 13, 2009, Candrick was employed as a patient account representative for the Richardson, Texas office of MedAssets, which handles billing for healthcare organizations. In that role, she illegally obtained personal information on more than 1,200 individuals from billing accounts she handled, which she used to fraudulently make purchases, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas.
Many of the individuals were patients at University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, the office confirmed.
In another recent case of medical identity theft, federal authorities charged 44 alleged members and associates of an Armenian-American organized crime enterprise in connection with two massive health insurance fraud schemes.