An employee at an Evansville, Indiana optometry office is accused of doing a lot more than getting out of an $80 charge. Investigators say 35-year-old Hannah Richardson started with her own billing ledger, then kept going, altering more than 500 patient records over roughly ten days in late June and early July, wiping out outstanding balances, insurance adjustments, and patient payments along the way.
When it was over, police say the office was exposed to more than $25,000 in losses, and 52 patients could have been rebilled nearly $47,000 for bills they had already paid. Richardson allegedly used another employee’s login credentials to access and modify hundreds of additional records, and one patient reportedly called the office confused after being told they owed money they had already settled. She resigned on July 2 and now faces charges of theft, fraud, and computer data modification.
For anyone who has ever paid a medical bill and thought “well, that’s handled,” this story is a small cautionary tale. Keep your receipts, check your statements, and if a charge looks wrong, question it. It’s always easier to dispute something early than to prove you already paid.
Have you ever been billed for a medical payment you knew you’d already made? We want to hear what happened.
