The operators of two Georgia health care providers were charged with stealing nearly $1 million from the state’s Medicaid program.

Matthew David Harrell and Andrea Lillie Barrett were charged by a Cobb County Grand Jury last week with one count of Medicaid fraud, one count of conspiracy to defraud the state and one count of identity fraud, according to the state attorney general’s office.

Harrell, who owned and operated Revive Athletics Inc. in Henry County, and Barrett, who owned and operated Lillie Cares Health Services in Glynn and Chatham counties in southeast Georgia, are accused of stealing $977,677 from Georgia Medicaid through allegedly fraudulent billings.

According to a news release from the attorney general’s office, Harrell, “through the guise of various community after-school programs,” obtained Medicaid numbers from the parents of children insured by Medicaid, many of them from Cobb County.

“Harrell shared a number of these fraudulently obtained Medicaid numbers with Barrett to use for Lillie Cares Health Services Medicaid billing,” the release said.

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A native of Columbus and a fine arts graduate of Clark Atlanta, Amy Sherald was chosen as the official portrait artist of former first lady Michelle Obama. On the same week that the portrait was unveiled at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, it was also announced that Sherald was awarded the High Museum's 2018 David C. Driskell Prize. (Andrew Harnik/AP)

Credit: Andrew Harnik