Massage therapist arrested

By Matthew Penix
St. Tammany News
Published on Friday, July 25, 2008 9:06 AM CDT

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A manager of a Folsom area massage therapy business was arrested earlier this month for allegedly attempting to bilk Medicaid for hundreds of dollars in false insurance claims, authorities said.

Elecia T. Crain, 29, manager of Natural Touch in Folsom at 13323 Camp St., was booked July 10 with three counts of Medicaid fraud and three counts of filing or maintaining false public records, according to a statement from Jennifer Cluck, spokesman for state Attorney General James “Buddy” Caldwell. If convicted of all the fraud charges alone, Crain of 526 Hilltop Drive in Franklinton, faces up to 15 years in prison with hard labor and $60,000 in fines. Someone who answered the phone at Natural Touch declined to comment Tuesday morning.

The Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit lead the investigation while the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office assisted in a search warrant of the property. Crain was briefly booked into the St. Tammany Parish Jail, then transferred to the attorney general’s custody July 10, a jailer said. It’s unclear why the investigation was launched or how much money Crain allegedly tried to defraud the federal government. In a short statement, the Attorney General’s Office said, “The suspect allegedly submitted false claims for payment to the Medicaid program.”

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