DOVER, Del.- An ex-Delaware psychiatrist has been sentenced to a year behind bars for prescribing painkillers that were not medically necessary and billing Medicaid for them.
Fifty-three-year-old Yvette K. Baker pleaded guilty on Tuesday to defrauding the Delaware Medicaid Program of nearly $175,000. Following her release from jail, Baker will have to serve seven years probation. Additionally, she has also been ordered to pay $273,000 in damages and fines, including $172,000 to the Delaware Medicaid Program, $100,000 in fines and $1,750 for the cost of extradition.
Prosecutors said Baker worked at the Psychiatric Wellness Center in Dover. Authorities said that between July 2006 and July 2009, she improperly billed Medicaid for services that were not provided or where medical records did not exist to prove that services had been provided.
Baker's license to prescribe drugs was suspended in April 2010, and her Delaware medical license was suspended in July 2010.
Baker was arrested in October 2011 in Huntsville, Ala., where she lived, and was extradited to Delaware in January of this year. She has been held at the Baylor Women's Correctional Institution since her return to Delaware.
During her appearance Tuesday morning in Kent County Superior Court, Baker pleaded guilty to four felony charges of health care fraud and two misdemeanor charges of false representation and making a false statement.
Prosecutors explained that the felony charges relate to Baker prescribing opiate painkillers, paid for by Medicaid, that were not medically necessary and to the improper billing of Medicaid for services that were either not provided or where medical records did not exist to prove that services had been provided.
The two misdemeanor charges relate to Baker's failure to disclose that she was prohibited from participating in the Medicaid program when she applied for a Delaware medical license and her subsequent billing of the Medicaid program when she knew that she was not eligible to participate as a Medicaid provider, prosecutors said.
Yvette K. Baker
