CT care center employee convicted of stealing from elderly resident

A former business manager at a Portland care center was sentenced Tuesday to less than a year in prison for financial exploitation of an elderly resident, officials said.

Ryan Turko, 42, of Newington, was sentenced by Judge Julia DiCocco Dewey in Middletown Superior Court to five years in prison, suspended after nine months in prison, with five years of probation after pleading guilty to theft at second degree and first degree identity theft. , according to the Connecticut Division of Criminal Justice.

Investigators with the Chief State Attorney's Office's Medicaid Fraud Unit learned that between September 2020 and February 2021, Turko, the former business manager of the Portland Care and Rehabilitation Center, accessed improperly accessed an elderly resident's bank account, made online withdrawals and transfers and issued checks in his name totaling $15,778.43. According to the DCJ, “PCRC is a facility that accepts Medicaid funds on behalf of clients for services.”

As part of the sentencing, Turko was ordered not to act as a Medicaid provider and “not to work in any facility where elderly or disabled persons are cared for, as well as in any facility receiving Medicaid funding,” the DCJ said. He was also ordered to undergo substance abuse evaluation and treatment “if deemed necessary” and to perform 50 hours of community service.

According to the DCJ, Turko reimbursed the $15,778.43 to the victim.

“By being convicted of a program-related crime, the defendant is also subject to mandatory exclusion as a health care provider from certain federally funded health programs, consistent with federal and state laws and regulations “, said the DCJ. “Medicaid is a government program that provides health coverage to low-income, disabled, and elderly people, and is funded by both the federal and state governments. »

Anyone with knowledge of suspected fraud or abuse in the public health care system is asked to contact the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the Chief State Attorney's Office at 860-258-5986.