Maryland woman pleads guilty to stealing $3.6 million in Medicaid fraud scheme

A Parkville woman pleaded guilty to stealing more than $3.6 million in a Maryland Medicaid fraud case, the attorney general's office said Tuesday. 

Tasha Saunders, 44, admitted to operating two behavioral health companies that submitted fraudulent claims for psychiatric rehabilitation program services between November 2019 and September 2024.

Investigators found she forged signatures, created fake patient records, and stole the identities of healthcare providers and Medicaid recipients.

"This outrageous conduct is an insult to the one in five Marylanders who rely on Medicaid for health coverage," Brown said.

This marks Saunders' second Medicaid fraud conviction. In May 2021, she pleaded guilty to similar fraud schemes involving different mental health companies and was sentenced to nine months in prison, nine months of home detention, and ordered to pay $470,744 in restitution.

After Saunders' first conviction, she was placed on a federal exclusion list prohibiting her from participating in federal healthcare programs. Prosecutors say she lied on Medicaid provider applications to conceal her involvement with the new companies.

The investigation involved nearly a dozen search warrants for email records, cloud storage accounts, and cell phones. Investigators discovered Saunders had stolen the identities of legitimate providers, including University of Maryland School of Medicine faculty members, to create fraudulent service authorizations.

Saunders pleaded guilty on February 25 and is set to be sentenced on July 21.

Maryland sees similar fraud cases

In February, the owner of multiple Baltimore childcare centers was charged with stealing more than $2.5 million from Maryland through a decade-long fraud scheme. 

In another case, a Baltimore man pleaded guilty to stealing more than $82,000 from Maryland's Child and Adult Care Food Program.