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| Laura Lynn Bell, 39, a former psychiatric nurse practitioner |
Arizona grand jury indicts an ex-nurse for insurance fraud
The Associated Press
August 08, 2018
PHOENIX, AZ
Arizona prosecutors say a state grand jury has indicted a former psychiatric nurse practitioner for treating patients while unlicensed and defrauding multiple insurance companies.
The Arizona Attorney General's Office is prosecuting the case against Laura Lynn Bell, who is facing 12 felony charges including forgery, fraudulent schemes and artifices, theft, money laundering and trafficking in the identity of another.
Bell's license was revoked by the Arizona State Board of Nursing in November 2017.
She's accused of using stolen identities of nurse practitioners and former patients to bill insurance companies for services that weren't rendered.
Bell also is accused of fraudulently receiving more than $190,000 from various insurance companies and treating three patients who are veterans without a license.
It was unclear Wednesday if Bell has a lawyer yet.
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CHANDLER, AZ -
A woman with a revoked psychiatric license was caught treating Veterans Affairs patients and defrauding the VA and insurance companies of over $800,000.
Investigators with the Arizona Department of Insurance report that on July 31, 39-year-old Laura Lynn Bell was arrested at her Chandler home, near Cooper and Chandler Heights roads.
Investigators say since her conviction for a similar crime in December 2017, Bell has been actively continuing her operation of fraudulently submitting insurance claims to the VA and various insurance companies.
Bell had her license as a psychiatric nurse revoked last November. They report that "over a 6-month period she submitted over 2,000 separate insurance claims using 73 former patient identities."
Investigators say she used five aliases and stolen identities of other nurses to obtain the 'National Provider Identifier number' needed to submit the false claims.
Investigators found evidence of over $800,000 in false claims that were submitted and accepted by various insurance companies. Bell's company had already been paid over $200,000.
Bell, who is from Thailand, had her passport revoked after her conviction.
Authorities say she was using another false identity to get another passport to travel back to Thailand. Bell is being held without bond on charges of fraud, theft, money laundering and forgery.