New Mexico driver pleads guilty to billing Medicaid for trips she and her children supposedly took, to meetings far away
Dorothea Irving of Farmington, New Mexico, who worked as a driver from 2020 to 2026 for a non-emergency medical transportation company, pleaded guilty on July 20, 2026 to conspiracy to commit health care fraud. Court documents say she and the company submitted false trip records claiming that she or her children were the Medicaid beneficiaries without transportation. For those trips the company claimed about $3,957,788 and received about $4,142,942 from New Mexico Medicaid. A sentencing date has not been set.
- Year
- 2026
- Where
- United States
- Outcome
- Convicted
- Reported loss
- $4.0 million
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- Medicaid transportation fraud
- Last reviewed
- 2026-10-28
The facts, as recorded
- According to court documents, Irving worked as a driver between 2020 and 2026 for a New Mexico company that provided non-emergency medical transportation.
- New Mexico Medicaid covers transportation to non-emergency medical services, such as routine doctors' appointments, for recipients who lack access to transportation by personal vehicle or public transportation.
- Instead of driving beneficiaries, Irving and the company engaged in a multi-year scheme to submit claims for transportation purportedly provided to Irving and her children.
- Together with the company, its owner, and other employees and drivers, she submitted false trip records claiming that she or her children were the Medicaid beneficiaries without transportation, claiming trips that had not occurred, and claiming to have been an attendant for her children on their own trips.
- Irving and other drivers signed trip forms falsely representing that they had driven each other to appointments, to disguise that they were driving themselves.
- In many instances the trips involved Irving, another driver or minor children purportedly traveling to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings across New Mexico at great distances.
- The company also submitted false claims that each passenger in the vehicle had taken a separate trip.
- For the trips taken by Irving and her children as the supposed beneficiaries, the company submitted fraudulent claims of approximately $3,957,788 and received approximately $4,142,942 from Medicaid. Irving herself received approximately $980,901 from the company over four years.
- She pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and faces a maximum of 10 years in prison.
Why this case matters
It is an example of a scheme where the beneficiaries on the claims are not strangers or the dead but the drivers and their own children, a different way of reaching the same result: claims for trips that were not the trips a program pays for. The court documents describe a driver and her children listed as the people who lacked transport, and trip forms signed to say drivers had driven each other.
What the release states about the company
The release says Irving worked “together with the company, its owner, and other employees and drivers”. It does not name the company or its owner, and it does not say whether any of them has been charged or what happened to any of them. This page does not name them or say anything about their outcomes.
The caveat
Irving has pleaded guilty but has not been sentenced, so the sentence is not known. The facts above are what the court documents say, as reported in the IRS Criminal Investigation release. The release gives the amounts as approximate, and the $3,957,788 claimed and $4,142,942 received are for the trips by Irving and her children as the supposed beneficiaries, not for the company’s whole billing.
Sources
- New Mexico Woman Pleads Guilty to $4M Medicaid Fraud. Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation. Accessed 2026-10-28. Supports: Every fact above: the 2020 to 2026 period, the claims for trips by Irving and her children, the trip forms, the Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, the separate-trip claims per passenger, the $3,957,788 claimed, the $4,142,942 received, the $980,901 paid to Irving, the guilty plea and the 10-year maximum.