Former Alabama Medicaid worker sentenced for theft by deception
A former Alabama Medicaid employee has been sentenced after pleading guilty to theft by deception involving more than $100,000.
Attorney General Steve Marshall said Natalie Lewis has been sentenced to ten years in prison, with three years to serve. After serving three years, Lewis will be placed on probation for two years, with the remaining seven years suspended. Judge Brooke Reid ordered Lewis to begin serving her sentence immediately in the county jail.
Lewis pleaded guilty in August, admitting to using her position as a Medicaid employee to approve fraudulent payments over 1,600 times over five years. Those payments were loaded onto an EBT card that Lewis used, Marshall said.
At a later date, the court will determine whether Lewis may serve the remainder of her three-year sentence in the community corrections program.
“Public employees hold a position of trust, and when that trust is violated, particularly when taxpayer dollars are stolen, there must be consequences,” Marshall said. “This sentence makes clear that abuse of public office will not be tolerated, and the people of Alabama will be made whole.”
As required by state law, Lewis will forfeit her state retirement benefits because she used her official position to commit a felony. While she will not receive her state-funded retirement, she is entitled to the contributions she made to her retirement account with interest. Lewis has agreed that those funds will be applied toward restitution owed.
