Lakes Region resident pleads guilty to Medicaid fraud, another scheduled for trial in May

A Lakes Region resident was convicted in Merrimack County Superior Court on charges she defrauded Medicaid of thousands of dollars for bunk mileage reimbursements, according to a press statement from the office of Attorney General John Formella on Wednesday night.

Felisha Cunningham, 29, of Franklin and Tilton, was convicted on a class A felony charge of theft by deception and a class B felony charge of Medicaid fraud by making false claims. Cunningham was sentenced to one year at the Merrimack County House of Corrections on the fraud charge. Six months of the sentence are suspended for seven years upon Cunningham’s release.

On the charge of theft by deception, Cunningham was sentenced to two to four years at New Hampshire State Prison, which is fully suspended for seven years upon her release following the fraud sentence. The two- to four-year sentence will run consecutively to the fraud sentence, if imposed, according to the Attorney General’s Office. 

Additional terms of the sentences include payment of $17,749.54 to the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services and no further participation in the Family and Friends Mileage Reimbursement Program.

On Wednesday, Cunningham pleaded guilty to working with another individual, Tucker Bean, to file false Medicaid claims to steal $17,749.54 in program funds. Between April 2023 and January 2024, Cunningham apparently participated in creating and submitting false mileage reimbursement requests for non-emergency medical transportation trips for her and Bean as part of the Family and Friends Mileage Reimbursement Program.

In submitting those false claims, Cunningham said she was living in Plymouth and traveling to health care appointments in Franklin, a distance greater than 25 miles each way, according to the Attorney General’s Office. Additionally, she said Bean was living in Conway and she was driving him to treatment appointments in Franklin each day, a distance of approximately 60 miles each way. During that period, prosecutors say the pair were actually living together in the area of Franklin and Tilton. For several months, they lived in an apartment just 0.5 miles from the treatment facility. 

Bean is scheduled for trial in May.

The pair were indicted for the same in May 2024 by a Merrimack County Grand Jury. At the time of their indictment, prosecutors said Bean submitted claims using a relative’s address in Conway.

The maximum penalty on the class A felonies is 7.5 to 15 years in the New Hampshire State Prison and a $4,000 fine. The maximum penalty on the class B felonies is 3.5 to seven years in the New Hampshire State Prison and a $4,000 fine.

Financial Investigator Timothy Brackett and Investigator John Lannon of the New Hampshire Department of Justice’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit investigated the case with assistance from the Conway, Franklin, and Tilton police departments. The case was prosecuted by Senior Assistant Attorney General Thomas Worboys and Assistant Attorney General Andrew Yourell of the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.