- Gregg and Tara Garner founded the Nashville-based nonprofit Global Outreach Developments International.
- The couple were indicted last year on charges of theft and TennCare fraud.
- New evidence indicates that prosecutors dropped the case against them this summer.
Prosecutors have uncovered the issue of a Medicaid fraud case against Gregg and Tara Garner, the husband and wife duo behind Nashville’s Global Outreach Developments.
The Garners were accused in March 2021 of defrauding the state’s medical assistance program by failing to report business income that would disqualify the family from health insurance benefits.
New evidence suggests the family behind the faith-based nonprofit was mistakenly enrolled in TennCare after a phone call between a Medicaid representative and the family’s assistant. introduced herself as Tara Garner.
“It was clear that the Garners were not actively putting their children into TennCare,” Assistant District Attorney Chadwick Jackson said in a conversation with The Tennessean this summer. It just so happened that it was this person who was doing it.”
Jackson did not name the assistant who is unlikely to be prosecuted, Jackson said.
“The person came for an interview and found no criminal intent,” he said.
According to a news release circulated after the initial investigation, the Medicaid program paid more than $18,000 for family medical services. Children received program benefits from November 2015 through the end of 2017.
Further investigation revealed that the Family Assistant was tasked with organizing health insurance for the Garner children and had called TennCare with the intention of receiving a refusal letter that would be used to process private insurance.
However, a TennCare representative falsely stated that the children were eligible. .
Multiple attempts to contact the Garners’ attorney, Bill Ramsay, were unsuccessful. In an earlier telephone interview with The Tennessean, Ramsey said he agreed to drop the charges when prosecutors were presented with evidence of his family.
“These accusations have become sufficiently unsubstantiated,” Ramsey said on Aug. 16.
“The District Attorney’s Office is very ethical. They looked at the evidence we had, said, ‘You are right,’ they did the right thing and dropped the charges.”
Lawsuit: TennCare’s verification system is ‘ridden with errors’
The TennCare rubric is complex and an individual’s eligibility may change from year to year as children age and family financial circumstances change. In recent years, critics have flagged the agency’s inefficiencies in leaving some of Tennessee’s most vulnerable people without needed medical coverage. It has announced efforts to update it, and many have said the changes won’t come to fruition anytime soon.
A 2020 lawsuit against TennCare alleges that the “flawed process” by which agencies verify eligibility is “full of errors” and causes people to improperly lose coverage.8 In May, a federal judge refused to reinstate compensation for Tennesseans who lost it, but if the COVID-19 public health emergency designation ends, others will sue if they lose it later this year. paved the way for participation in
The Garner case was initially investigated and made public by the Tennessee Inspector General’s Office. The Office of the Inspector General denied the request for files related to the Tennessee investigation because files related to the investigation are exempt from the state’s public records law.
The fate of the sealed case
At the core of the incident, Jackson said, was a recording of a conversation initially thought to have taken place between Tara Garner and a Ten Care representative. It turns out.
The state brought the case to a Davidson County grand jury in January 2021, and the indictment against the couple has been sealed.
“This was a very bizarre chain of events, and it wasn’t until[Assistant District Attorney]General (Mindy) Vinecore and I got hold of the case and dug into it that we didn’t know all about it. It’s a problem.” Jackson said.
“Those voice recordings turned out not to be Garners.”
Before:Children who lost Medicaid sued TennCare
more:Global Outreach Developments founder TennCare fraud charges against wife dropped
It is unclear whether investigators in the Inspector General’s Office spoke with the Garners before turning the case over to the District Attorney’s Office. It said it could not, but generally said that hints of possible fraud “are scrutinized to see if there is any information that definitively confirms or invalidates the claim.” Interview the people at the heart of those claims.
“If we determine that our information is reliable enough to warrant continued investigation, we will move forward to gather more information,” Potter added. Once tracking is exhausted, it will be decided whether to submit the information to the district attorney general for grand jury review.”
The investigative process can take months, and cases have an average lifespan of 10 months or more. Since the Inspector General’s Office began investigating him in 2005, more than 3,000 people have been indicted for his TennCare fraud.
Garners sent checks, lawsuit dismissed
The couple were initially accused of receiving unreported income from companies including Hopewell Family Care, Califarmia food trucks and Music City Handyman, all of which are affiliated with Garners.
Combined with the income, the family would have been ineligible for the state-subsidized medical program, the first investigator said.
In fact, the family had private insurance at the time of the issue, which Jackson confirmed and the provider had billed for services on.
Amy Lawrence, spokesperson for TennCare, said most eligibility categories are available for individual insurance and TennCare.
“In those cases, private insurance pays first and TennCare pays last,” says Lawrence. “Under federal law, Medicaid is considered a payer of last resort.”
After the criminal case broke down, the prosecutor and the Office of the Inspector General agreed that repayment of $18,112.06 would be a satisfactory outcome.
Greg Garner collected the cashier’s check on July 15, according to records obtained from the Inspector General’s Office. The check was passed to the district attorney’s office, and on July 21 he was transferred to the TennCare office.
A week later, the lawsuit was dismissed.
Contact Tennessee reporter Kirsten Fiscus at 615-259-8229 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @KDFiscus. Please contact reporter girlfriend Mariah Timms at [email protected] or 615-259-8344 and Twitter. @MariahTimms.
