Based in Washington, D.C., United States, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was formed on April 11, 1953 to protect the health of people in the country and provide them essential human services. It administers the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which provides matching funds to states for health insurance to families with children.
On July 30, 1965, the federal health insurance program called Medicare and the government program Medicaid were formed in the U.S. The former is for people aged at least 65 and younger people with disabilities and the latter provides health insurance for adults and children with limited income and resources.
In March 1977, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) was formed within the HHS. The agency administers Medicare and works in partnership with state governments to administer Medicaid, the CHIP and health insurance portability standards.
On April 8, 2025, Mehmet Oz assumed office as the administrator of the CMS. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, he turned 64 on June 11, 2024.
The CMS is based in Woodlawn, Baltimore County, Maryland, USA, which is around 1,226 miles away from Opelousas, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, USA. Georgia Ann Robinson, the first African American woman appointed to be a police officer in Los Angeles, California, USA was born in Opelousas.
Shanone Chatman-Ashley
On May 1, 2025, Shanone Chatman-Ashley, 45, of Opelousas was convicted by a federal jury for her role in a $2 million health care fraud scheme. She will be sentenced on July 31, 2025.
Chatman-Ashley was a nurse practitioner and an enrolled provider with Medicare. She worked as an independent contractor for four companies that purportedly provided telehealth services to beneficiaries of the program.
The companies based in four different U.S. states namely Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey and New York. From 2017 to 2019, Chatman-Ashley signed more than 1,000 orders for medically unnecessary durable medical equipment (DME) and received kickbacks and bribes from the companies in exchange for the orders.
To conceal the scheme, Chatman-Ashley signed documentation falsely certifying that she had consulted with the beneficiaries and personally conducted assessments of them. The scheme caused more than $2 million in fraudulent Medicare claims and over $1 million in reimbursements.
The Opelousas woman was convicted of five counts of health care fraud. She faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on each count.
On May 17, 2010, Chatman-Ashley married Joshua Ashley. In 2015, she graduated from the Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana with a master’s degree in nursing.
CONAN Daily 