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State auditor finds home health care attendants had criminal records

E-mail|Link|Comments () October 14, 2009 01:45 PM

By David Abel, Globe Staff

A $332 million state Medicaid program that oversees home health care services provided to about 16,000 elderly and disabled residents is rife with fraud and employs personal care attendants who have committed felonies, including manslaughter, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and threatening to commit murder, according to a report released today by the Office of the State Auditor.

The report also found that the Massachusetts program -- which has tripled in size over the past decade -- is one of only four out of 238 programs nationwide without any job requirements for personal care attendants. The state now pays more than 23,000 attendants -- more than twice the number of a decade ago -- who allow the needy to remain in their homes by helping them take medication, bathe, dress, prepare meals, and shop, among other things.

In the audit, State Auditor Joe DeNucci urged state officials to establish job requirements for attendants, including criminal background checks, training, and education. Nearly every other program in the country requires background checks or special training.

“What we have found is that there are serious problems in the program,” DeNucci said in a telephone interview today. “We have to strengthen protections for vulnerable people. I think it’s very important.”

In a survey of 30 residents who use the program, the report found that overpayments on potentially fraudulent Medicaid claims “continue to be a significant problem.”

Over a four-year period, the report found $207,283 in overpayments. The payments were for services said to be provided in the home, but auditors found that the patients were actually at a medical facility at the time.

“If there’s fraud here, we expect it’s got to be other places,” DeNucci said.