by
Robin Lasky, Contributing Reporter | November 28, 2021
On November 19, the Arizona attorney general announced that William J. Timmins was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $774,000 arising from felony fraud convictions that were adjudicated five months earlier.
Between 2013 and June 30, 2018, while serving as the CEO of Hacienda HealthCare Inc., Mr. Timmins reportedly perpetrated a scheme to defraud the Arizona Department of Economic Security’s Division of Developmental Disabilities and the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System out of millions of dollars in reimbursements, according to a statement. During this five-year period, Mr. Timmins ordered the purchase of medical supplies from third parties through South Mountain Health Supply, a subsidiary of Hacienda registered at the same address, and then recorded the sale of these supplies from South Mountain to Hacienda for a 12.5% greater price, plus an added delivery fee, which public funds were then coordinated to pay. Over time, this resulted in millions of dollars in overpayments by the state which were used to pay for various costs across different Hacienda facilities.
Mr. Timmons had been the CEO of Hacienda from 1989 through January of 2019 when he was forced to step down after calls for his resignation by the then and current governor of Arizona
amid widespread outrage over a scandal at one of Hacienda’s facilities.
In December of 2018, a patient at one of Hacienda’s facilities who had been in an ongoing vegetative state was discovered to have been impregnated by one of her nurses and later gave birth. Further medical examination revealed that this had likely
not been the first time that she had been impregnated by staff, and showed signs of having been repeatedly raped both vaginally and anally over an extended period of time.
These revelations, and ensuing outrage, prompted further state investigations, later revealing a number of other glaring issues.
As reported by The Arizona Republic at the time, Mr. Timmins had been allowed to stay in his job despite a long history of sexual harassment allegations and other complaints against him, including some he had been officially reprimanded over.
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