The federal government has charged a South Portland personal care agency with healthcare fraud conspiracy related to Medicaid billing.<\/p>\n
An indictment was unsealed Tuesday morning, laying out the government\u2019s allegations against Community Home Health Care LLC, its owner and five employees. <\/p>\n
According to the document, investigators determined that the employees billed the state\u2019s MaineCare program and received Medicaid funding for services that they knew they hadn\u2019t provided. The allegations focus on personal care services that were reportedly provided to one unnamed client. <\/p>\n
The defendants have also been indicted on counts related to obstructing a healthcare investigation, for allegedly encouraging someone with knowledge of the situation not to speak with law enforcement after two related FBI raids in Augusta and Biddeford on June 23,<\/a> according to the indictment. <\/p>\n Defense attorney Michael Conley said Tuesday that Community Home Health Care\u2019s owner, Noora Abd, is presumed innocent. <\/p>\n \u201cAn indictment is an accusation. It is not a finding,\u201d Conley said in an email. \u201cThe government writes it and presents it to a grand jury that meets in secret. No defense lawyer is in that room. No judge is in that room. Noora Abd was not in that room. She is presumed innocent. We will contest these charges in open court.\u201d<\/p>\n Prosecutors say in the indictment that Maine paid roughly $600,000 to Community Home Health Care since 2020 for the client to receive personal care support. The state later reversed $35,000 of that, according to the indictment. <\/p>\n \u201cHealth care fraud \u2014 in all its forms \u2014 costs all of us,\u201d said U.S. Attorney Andrew Benson in a statement on Tuesday. Benson said if \u201cyou steal from our healthcare system for your own financial gain, you too, will be shut down and brought to justice. Protecting the integrity of all our federally funded healthcare programs for those who really need them is paramount.\u201d<\/p>\n If convicted, defendants face years in prison, fines and other penalties, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.<\/p>\n Jeffrey Grimming, Homeland Security Investigations Acting Special Agent in Charge, said in a statement on Tuesday that the arrests \u201cdismantled an elaborate alleged fraud ring dedicated to fleecing a system meant to help those in need.\u201d<\/p>\n Benson said the Maine Attorney General\u2019s Office and its healthcare fraud unit assisted in the case.<\/p>\n Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey said in a statement on Tuesday that \u201cfederal and state officials are working continuously to protect public dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n All six named defendants were arrested Tuesday, according to court records. They have been scheduled for various detention hearings Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon at the federal courthouse in Bangor.<\/p>\n The employees have been accused of creating false entries in the state\u2019s Electronic Visit Verification system, which is used to track Medicaid-eligible services as they\u2019re performed, including the person who has performed the services and the date.<\/p>\n Alkhalaf Mohammed, one employee accused to have participated in the scheme, has also been indicted on one count of delivering a false statement for denying the allegations during an FBI raid of his home in Augusta on June 23. Property records state that Mohammed was the property owner.<\/p>\n Investigators said in the indictment that they seized more than $116,000 in cash during an FBI search of a property in Biddeford that day, and more than $53,000 from the search of Mohammed\u2019s reported address. <\/p>\n Photographs of the search showed officials from the FBI and the Office of the Maine Attorney General; both agencies declined at that time to comment on the nature of those searches.<\/p>\n Community Home Health Care is one of five reported agencies<\/a> that the state as suspended Medicaid payments to, effective June 29, according to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. Another agency that has been temporarily barred from receiving Medicaid payments, Maine Connect Care, was included<\/a> on a list of matters that the Office of the Maine Attorney General\u2019s criminal division accidentally sent to members of the press earlier in October. <\/p>\n That document indicated that Maine prosecutors were waiting to hear back from the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office about plans for pursuing criminal or civil charges against that company, as well as another behavioral health provider that DHHS has taken action against, following allegations of Medicaid misuse.<\/p>\n Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, has criticized the state\u2019s Medicaid program this year, saying in February that the state \u201cneeds to clean up its act.\u201d<\/p>\n