ELWOOD, Ind. (WSVN) — An Indiana school superintendent has been charged with fraud after she was accused of using her own health insurance to help a sick student.
According to statement and court documents obtained by Fox 59, Casey Smitherman picked up a 15-year-old student after he was absent from school due to a sore throat.
Concerned for his well-being and believing he had strep throat and knowing he didn’t have insurance, she took him to a medical clinic to have him examined. However, she said the teen was refused service.
Smitherman said she then took the teen to another doctor and signed him in under her son’s name and used her own insurance to help him.
Court documents say a prescription for Amoxicillin was also filled under her son’s name. The total cost of the medical visit was $233.
Court documents say the teen tore the label off the bottle because he “knew it was wrong” and “to have a prescription in his possession with a different name is bad.”
Detectives later received a tip alerting them to the situation and spoke the teen’s guardian and Smitherman.
While speaking with police, Smitherman said she was concerned for the student when he was absent, and in the past, she bought him clothes and helped clean his home. However, she never called the Department of Child Protective Services because she feared he would be placed in foster care.
Officials said she also admitted to signing the boy in under her son’s name and getting the prescription filled.
Police eventually told the Department of Child Services that the boy’s guardian may need financial help.
Madison County Prosecutor Rodney Cummings said they are looking at a diversion program that, if completed, would result in no criminal conviction.
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