Mother and daughter sentenced for $3.6 million Medicaid fraud in Baltimore County
A mother and daughter from Baltimore County were sentenced for their roles in a $3.6 million Medicaid fraud scheme, Attorney General Anthony Brown said Friday.
Tasha Saunders, 46, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for Medicaid fraud, and her daughter, Tamyra Jordan, 26, was sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to pay $232,000.
A third co-defendant, Robert Higgins, previously pleaded guilty and is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 13, 2026, court officials said.
Medicaid fraud investigation
According to court documents, Saunders operated two behavioral health companies between November 2019 and September 2024. Her businesses, Guiding Lives Inc. and Another Chance Supportive Services LLC (ACSS), both submitted fraudulent claims for Psychiatric Rehabilitation Program services.
Saunders' daughter, Jordan, managed billing for Guiding Lives, court records show.
The two defrauded Medicaid by forging signatures, creating fake patient records and stealing the identities of healthcare providers and recipients, prompting Medicaid to reimburse $3.6 million for services that were not provided.
Previous fraud conviction
In 2021, Saunders pleaded guilty in a separate felony Medicaid fraud case, where she admitted to a similar scheme that involved two different mental health companies, court officials said. In that prior case, Saunders admitted to creating fake patient files, stealing the identities of counselors and submitting fake claims to Medicaid.
She was sentenced to nine months in prison, nine months of home detention and five years of probation in that case, court records show. She was also ordered to pay $470,744.
After the first conviction, Saunders was put on the Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General Exclusion List, prohibiting her from working for or receiving payments from federal healthcare programs, according to court officials.
Her status on the Exclusion List led her to lie on her Medicaid provider application to hide her affiliation with the new companies she was creating, court documents allege.
Stolen identities used in fraud scheme
Between January 2022 and September 2024, Saunders, Jordan and Higgins operated Guiding Lives and fraudulently billed Maryland Medicaid for services that were not provided.
According to court documents, they created fake patient records to conceal their scheme. This occurred while Saunders was on the Exclusion List. During that time, Maryland Medicaid paid Guiding Lives $2.8 million for the fraudulent claims.
While she was still on probation, Saunders concealed her involvement with her other company, ACSS, by using the names of several people.
Between June 2023 and September 2024, Saunders and Higgins submitted $835,000 in fake claims on behalf of ACSS. That money was paid to bank accounts controlled by Saunders and Higgins, according to court records.
During the investigation, state officials searched email records, cellphones and data storage accounts, revealing a system for generating fake patient records. Officials also talked to several Medicaid recipients who did not know about the companies billed under their names.
The investigation also revealed that Saunders stole the identities of healthcare providers, including staff from the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
