A registered nurse was indicted on Tuesday for allegedly filing false timekeeping records of home care visits to patients in order to fill her pockets with thousands of extra dollars she did not earn, according to Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.
Catherine Bodiongan, 49, of Shorefront Parkway in Rockaway Park was arraigned Feb. 19 before Acting Queens Supreme Court Justice Gia Morris on a 62-count indictment charged with first- and second-degree falsifying business records and fourth-degree grand larceny.
Bodiongan, a registered nurse with New York City’s Health and Hospitals Corporation, is alleged to have used the fake filings to increase her pay in Aug. 2017 by more than $2,000.
She was released on her own recognizance and ordered to return to court on May 14.
“The defendant is accused of billing her employer funds that could have been used to provide healthcare for the indigent and uninsured of New York City,” said Brown. “A registered nurse, she was entrusted to provide quality care for patients as well as to honestly disclose the hours she worked providing that care. Instead, this defendant allegedly found a way to scheme the system and fill her pockets with thousands of extra dollars. She now faces prison time for her alleged greed.”
According to Brown, on Aug. 10, 2017, Bodiongan used an electronic medical record system to document a visit to a patient who lived in Queens Village. A routine follow-up inquiry was made at which time officials learned that the patient had died on July 30, 2017. Following this discovery, officials launched an investigation.
During the months of August 2017, and February and March 2018, prosecutors said, Bodiongan was paid for home visits at various locations throughout Queens, however, the investigation allegedly showed license plate readers from the Cross Bay Bridge that placed her near her home at the same time as the visits, Brown noted.
Official records from Bodiongan’s employee-provided cell phone, as well as her personal mobile phone, also allegedly showed she was in locations other than patients homes at the time of the alleged visits, said Brown.
Furthermore, surveillance conducted by law enforcement officials allegedly showed that on Feb. 20, and March 1, Bodiongan entered an exited patients’ homes for periods of time ranging from 10 minutes up to 45 minutes, yet her official filings for pay stated she visited for much longer, said Brown.
If convicted, Bodiongan faces between one and one-third to up to four years in prison.
