Nursing firm owner to pay $75,800 in thefts

OLYMPIA – A Spokane Valley nursing company owner charged with defrauding state taxpayers out of tens of thousands of dollars in health care services has agreed to pay $75,800 in restitution and fees, authorities said.

Sandra Colleen Christiansen, owner and president of First Choice Health Services Inc., pleaded guilty last week to four counts of first-degree theft, according to Assistant Attorney General Tony Rugel. Christiansen will also have to serve two days in jail, 30 days in home detention and a year on probation, he said.

“Our primary concern was that she be held accountable for what she had done,” Rugel said. “Our goal was not to have her serve a lot of jail time. Clearly she isn’t a violent threat to the community or anything like that.”

Despite a similar name, Christiansen’s company has no connection to First Choice Health Network Inc., based in Seattle.

Christiansen, who could not be reached for comment, was charged in December 2005 with 17 counts of theft.

The company provided in-home nursing care for sick or injured children, with the state Medicaid system picking up the tab. But Christiansen repeatedly billed the state for tens of thousands of dollars in skilled nursing care, state investigators found, when she dispatched a less-trained nurse or, sometimes, no nurse at all.

According to court papers, a former employee and several parents said that Christiansen would sometimes pay children’s parents to do the care, then bill the state as if she’d sent a nurse. The parents were paid $50 to $100 cash, in an envelope delivered by Christiansen or a receptionist.

Alerted by a nurse, state Department of Social and Health Services auditors scrutinized three years of records, including time cards and notes made by nurses. In one case, according to court records, the company billed the state for 96 hours of in-home care for a boy who was hospitalized and died during that time.

Christiansen has declared bankruptcy, Rugel said, so the judge ordered that the $75,800 be paid off on a payment plan.

“We do remain confident that we’ll be able to get the money eventually,” he said.

The case was one of the first for a new Medicaid fraud unit set up in Spokane last July by Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna.

“We realized there was a need,” said Rugel.