Kootenai County woman sentenced for unlawful practice of midwifery

BOISE, Idaho (KIFI) – Attorney General Lawrence Wasden announced a Kootenai County woman was sentenced Friday for unlawful practice of midwifery.

70-year-old Makaia M. Foster, of Hayden, pleaded guilty just prior to her sentencing.

First District Judge Fred Gibler sentenced Foster to 60 days in jail and then suspended the sentence. Foster was placed on unsupervised probation for two years, ordered to complete 100 hours of community service, and pay $4,617 in restitution and court costs of $150.

An investigation revealed between November 2016 and April 2018, Foster assisted in the delivery of three babies as a midwife. Each mother was a Medicaid client. Foster later submitted claims to Medicaid for payment and was paid with Medicaid funds for her services. Foster later admitted to an investigator that she assisted in each of the three deliveries and that she was not a licensed midwife at the time. Idaho law requires that midwives be licensed. Medicaid also requires midwives to be licensed in order to receive payment for their services.

Deputy Attorney General Jessica Cafferty in the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit prosecuted the case.