An Anchorage man is accused of fraudulently collecting nearly $800,000 in Medicaid payments over the past two years, state officials said Thursday.
According to a statement from the Alaska Department of Law, a grand jury indicted 47-year-old Abdoulie Lowe for receiving reimbursements for work which wasn’t documented as required by law. He also allegedly submitted another $7,000 in claims for services he claimed to provide to people in his care “when he was actually working elsewhere,” the statement said.
An initial indictment in the case listed offenses spanning from October 2021 through April of this year. Lowe – who did business as Apapa Assisted Living Home – allegedly submitted more than $328,000 in fraudulent claims for care of a single patient, plus more than $248,000, $185,000 and $32,000 for three others.
Maeve Kendall, the assistant attorney general with the state Medicaid Fraud Control Unit prosecuting the case against Lowe, declined to discuss the developing case in detail Friday. She said none of the money has been recovered yet, in what she called one of the unit’s larger cases.
“A six-figure fraud is certainly a significant matter for our unit, and especially in Alaska,” Kendall said.
According to Kendall, Apapa had been providing care at an East Anchorage apartment, an arrangement she said was relatively common for small assisted-living facilities in Alaska.
“At the arraignment yesterday, Mr. Lowe did confirm with the court that he is no longer operating as a Medicaid provider,” Kendall said. “So he does not have clients in his care at this point.”
Lowe could not be reached for comment Friday. Court records didn’t list a lawyer for him. A phone number for Apapa Assisted Living had been disconnected.
Lowe is charged with six felony counts of medical assistance fraud and one felony count of second-degree theft, plus failing to maintain workers’ compensation for his employees.
According to the Department of Law, the most severe charges against Lowe carry penalties of up to 10 years in prison, a $100,000 fine and payment of restitution to the state.
“A conviction on any of these charges can lead to Mr. Lowe’s exclusion from the Medicaid program,” prosecutors wrote.
Chris Klint is a web producer and breaking news reporter at Alaska Public Media. Reach him at cklint@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Chris here.
