Portsmouth business owner pleads guilty to $1.3M Medicaid fraud

The owner of a Portsmouth home health care and mental health care services business with a location in Chesapeake pleaded guilty Monday to charges stemming from illegally receiving more than $1.32 million through Medicaid fraud, the Eastern District of Virginia U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday. 

Whitteney Guyton pleaded guilty to one count of health care fraud and six counts of making false statements; she owned and operated Synergy Health Systems, according to an indictment filed March 22, 2023, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elizabeth M. Yusi and Clayton D. LaForge are prosecuting the case. 

Guyton has more than 23,000 followers on TikTok, where she describes herself as a “mother, wife, owner of consulting firm, real estate, restaurant and fashion line,” and sometimes discusses building wealth. In addition to Synergy, Guyton is CEO of We Buy the Block, a real estate investment group, and was a co-owner of a Hampton brewing company that closed in 2023. In 2022, Guyton was included in a Virginia Business list of 100 People to Meet in 2023. 

From June 2016 through October 2018, Guyton engaged in a scheme to defraud the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services (DMAS), which administers Medicaid in the state, the U.S. Attorney’s Office alleged. Guyton billed Medicaid for services she claimed Synergy provided; however, the company’s records were “falsified, incomplete, failed to comply with basic Medicaid requirements, and included inflated time,” according to the statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Medicaid requires assessments by a registered nurse for personal care and by a licensed mental health professional (LMHP) for mental health services. Guyton had a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) contractor from 2016 to July 2017, but did not have another LMHP to conduct assessments or reassessments until October 2018. 

“Guyton instructed her staff to forge the original LCSW’s signature on assessments and certifications,” the release noted. “Guyton and Synergy submitted documents to DMAS for authorization for [mental health support services] for over 35 patients that contained forged signatures and authorizations, fraudulently billing and receiving over $740,000 from DMAS.”

Additionally, Guyton and Synergy forged signatures of a registered nurse and fraudulently billed over $50,000 from DMAS, and Synergy billed an additional $480,000 for patients in hospitals or health care facilities or for patients who didn’t have documentation of assessments being performed, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office. 

Scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 10, 2025, Guyton faces up to 10 years in prison. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.