A lawsuit filed by a former Mountain Home resident against a Missouri company involved in Medicaid fraud will be allowed to proceed. On Thursday, the Arkansas Supreme Court vacated an earlier decision by the Arkansas Court of Appeals to uphold the dismissal of the suit filed by Jim Parsons, currently of Bella Vista, against Preferred Family Healthcare of Springfield and returned the case to the Benton County Circuit Court for trial.
In 2017, federal and state investigators accused multiple former Preferred Family Healthcare executives of engaging in schemes to bribe Arkansas legislators, embezzle money from the nonprofit and defraud the Medicaid program of millions of dollars through improper billing practices. The company had agreed pay more than $8 million in forfeiture and restitution to the federal government and the state of Arkansas under the terms of a non-prosecution agreement, but Parsons filed a lawsuit in 2020, prior to the settlement, seeking to recover over $52.8 million the company reportedly received from the state.