A pair of Crawford County sisters are ordered to repay more than $3,000 to the Kansas Medicaid program after being found guilty of Medicaid Fraud-related charges. 43-year-old Amanda Forbes and 47-year-old Melissa Forbes, of Pittsburg, each pleaded no contest in March to one felony count of making a false claim to the Medicaid program and one felony count of conspiracy to make a false claim to the Medicaid program. Each defendant was also sentenced to 24 months of probation. An investigation by the attorney general’s Medicaid Fraud and Abuse Division revealed that Melissa Forbes had billed the Kansas Medicaid program as the personal care attendant for her sister, Amanda, to provide home-based care services.

The defendants billed for those home-based care services during periods while either Melissa Forbes or Amanda Forbes was incarcerated in the Crawford County Jail.