Former Charleston Area Medical Center administrator William H. Kincaid pleaded guilty Monday to obstruction of a federal audit.

In a hearing before U.S. District Judge Charles H. Haden II, Kincaid, 39, of Charleston admitted altering patient records and submitting them as authentic to an audit team representing the federal Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services.

In 2001 Kincaid was CAMC's reimbursement coordinator in charge of the hospital's Medicare and Medicaid cost report required by state and federal regulators. Federal auditors performing routine, end-of-year fiscal audits requested from CAMC a random sample of patient records as part of their review.

Kincaid used Wite-Out and a photocopy machine to change codes on perhaps 17 records. CAMC would have illegally kept approximately $220,000 in Medicare money had the alterations not been discovered.

Former Charleston Area Medical Center administrator William H. Kincaid pleaded guilty Monday to obstruction of a federal audit.

In a hearing before U.S. District Judge Charles H. Haden II, Kincaid, 39, of Charleston admitted altering patient records and submitting them as authentic to an audit team representing the federal Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services.

In 2001 Kincaid was CAMC's reimbursement coordinator in charge of the hospital's Medicare and Medicaid cost report required by state and federal regulators. Federal auditors performing routine, end-of-year fiscal audits requested from CAMC a random sample of patient records as part of their review.

Kincaid used Wite-Out and a photocopy machine to change codes on perhaps 17 records. CAMC would have illegally kept approximately $220,000 in Medicare money had the alterations not been discovered.

Kincaid is to be sentenced Dec. 2. He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Also in federal court, Jeffrey DaJuan Allen, 26, of Dunbar was sentenced Monday to 10 years in prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm. Allen pleaded guilty in May to the illegal possession. In February, Allen shot an off-duty state Department of Natural Resources officer as the officer passed Allen's vehicle in his truck on W.Va. 25 near Institute. The officer was hit in the side by the second of two shots fired.

Haden handed down the maximum sentence allowed.