Published: April 16, 2008 09:45 am         

Kosciusko attorney enters guilty plea

Kosciusko attorney Jim Davis Hull, 60, has pleaded guilty to three counts of false statement relating to health care matters in late March according to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi clerk’s office.

He will be sentenced on June 27.

Hull was arrested by the FBI and charged with 19 counts of health care fraud, including conspiracy charges, associated with his partial ownership and operation of Mississippi Care Partners, Inc., Oct. 2, 2007. Pamela Hull of Moss Point, Jacqualine Crawley of North Carolina and Cheniqua G. Ellis of Franklin, Tenn., were also charged in the indictment.

Mississippi Care Partners, Inc. claimed to provide medical services to Medicare and Medicaid patients in their Moss Point and Cleveland offices.

The indictments by the Grand Jury for the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi and the arrests were the results of a FBI and Department of Health and Human Services – Officer of the Inspector General two-year investigation.

According to the FBI, the case was initiated as a result of allegations that the MCP and Rehabilicare, Inc. were conducting business as the two medical institutions conspired to use non-licensed employees to falsely bill Medicaid and Medicare for ineligible and non-reimbursable physical therapy/physical medical services and to be paid for same.

Hull was granted a leave of absence as public defender for the City of Kosciusko and Attala County shortly after he was charged.