Superintendent Arrested For Allegedly Using Her Health Insurance To Cover Child’s Medicine

A faculty superintendent in Indiana is dealing with fraud fees after she allegedly used her medical health insurance to buy drugs for a in poor health uninsured kid at her college.

Casey Smitherman, of Elwood Community Schools in Elwood, used to be booked Wednesday on two counts of insurance coverage fraud, one depend of legitimate misconduct and one depend of id deception ahead of being launched on bail.

In charging paperwork, Smitherman informed government that she took the 15-year-old to look a physician after understanding he were absent from college as a result of a suspected case of strep throat and changing into fearful. According to the IndyStar, lives with an aged circle of relatives member who does now not have a automotive.

In the previous, Smitherman had helped acquire clothes for and helped him blank his area, she informed government. She mentioned she didn’t name the Department of Child Services as a result of she didn’t need him positioned in foster care. The DCS has since opened an investigation, consistent with the charging paperwork.

After being became away by way of one health facility as a result of he lacked insurance coverage, Smitherman mentioned she known the boy as her son at any other health facility, which prescribed him Amoxicillin for his sore throat.

Her medical health insurance, known by way of government as Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, coated the price of his remedy, which totaled $233, consistent with court docket paperwork got by way of Fox 59 News.

In a observation to native media, Smitherman mentioned she knew what she did used to be unsuitable however that her handiest worry on the time used to be for the kid’s well-being.

“As a parent, I know how serious this illness can be if left untreated, and I took him to an emergency clinic,” she mentioned. “I knew he did not have insurance, and I wanted to do all I could to help him get well.”

The Elwood college board additionally expressed improve for her, calling it an “unfortunate mistake but we understand that it was out of concern for this child’s welfare.”

“We know she understands what she did was wrong, but she continues to have our support,” it mentioned.

Madison County Prosecutor Rodney Cummings mentioned he’s going to be offering Smitherman a diversion program that may permit the fees to be dropped in opposition to her as long as she isn’t arrested once more within the coming 12 months.

“There would have been a much easier way to handle this and still accomplish the same goal without doing some of the things that she did that were inconsistent with our laws and our values,” Cummings informed Fox 59 News.