Mass. Alleges Nonprofit Care Group Billed Medicaid for Dead Patients

Officials of a Massachusetts charity that provides home care for disabled and indigent adults have been accused of bilking the state out of millions of dollars in Medicaid funds, in part by continuing to bill it for patients who had died, writes The Boston Globe.

Sharon Richardson, owner of Adlife Healthcare, and two of her employees were indicted Friday on charges that the nonprofit collected some $5.5-million in billings for more than 100 patients for whom care had not been provided and about 20 who had died.

Ms. Richardson pleaded not guilty. Her lawyer, Daniel Small, said prosecutors were misrepresenting accounting issues involving a fraction of Adlife’s caseload of 1,700 and that billing for late patients reflected lag time between the organization learning of their deaths and updating its Medicaid paperwork.