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Government Actions

USA v. Barnes - Markita Barnes

The following describes a pending government action that has been formally brought by a government agency but has not yet been resolved. We are providing a summary of the government’s allegations, which have not yet been proven.

 Gregory J. Haanstad, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, announced that on June 21, 2023, a federal grand jury indicted Markita Barnes (age: 30) of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for perpetrating a $2.3 million health care fraud and kickback scheme that involved Barnes lying about having provided prenatal care coordination (PNCC) services and childcare coordination services to at-risk and low-income pregnant women and new mothers in Milwaukee.

According to the indictment, from October 2020 through November 2021, Barnes owned Here For You, which was a PNCC agency operating in Milwaukee. PNCC agencies are reimbursed by Medicaid when they provide services intended to address Wisconsin’s historically high rate of infant mortality among at-risk populations. Specifically, PNCC services are supposed to ensure that women at high risk are identified as early as possible in their pregnancies, receive psychosocial support, prenatal care services, and health and nutrition education, and are referred to available community services that they need to help them achieve positive birth and parenting outcomes.

The indictment alleges that Barnes offered and provided kickbacks to induce women to sign up for prenatal care coordination services with Here For You, and then allegedly submitted millions of dollars of fraudulent claims for services never actually provided to those women. Barnes also allegedly submitted claims for services she contended were provided to her clients before she or anyone from her agency had ever met the client.

The indictment charges Barnes with multiple counts of Health Care Fraud and False Statements Relating to Health Care Matters, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1347 and 18 U.S.C. § 1035, violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute, 42 U.S.C. § 1320a-7b, Obstruction of a Healthcare Fraud Investigation, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1518, Money Laundering, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1957, and Aggravated Identity Theft, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1028A.
 If convicted, Barnes faces a mandatory sentence of two years in prison for each count of Aggravated Identity Theft, up to twenty years in prison for each count of Health Care Fraud, up to ten years in prison for each count of Anti-Kickback Statute violations and Money Laundering, and up to five years in prison for each count of False Statements and Obstruction.