Home Economy Economic Activity Former local health organization, CEO settle Medicaid fraud claims for $10.2M

Former local health organization, CEO settle Medicaid fraud claims for $10.2M

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PBN Staff

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06/16/2026

Journey — THE JOURNEY to Hope, Health and Healing Inc. and its former CEO Kenneth L. Richardson Jr. have agreed to pay $10.2 million to settle claims that it billed Medicaid and disorder treatment programs for services that the health organization failed to provide.

PROVIDENCE – A now-defunct opioid treatment provider and its former CEO have agreed to pay $10.2 million to settle claims that it fraudulently billed for Medicaid program or disorder-treatment services, the U.S. Attorney’s Office District of Rhode Island announced Tuesday. The settlement resolves allegations made by Former U.S. Attorney Zachary A. Cunha and Attorney General Peter F.

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PROVIDENCE – A now-defunct opioid treatment provider and its former CEO have agreed to pay $10.2 million to settle claims that it fraudulently billed for Medicaid program or disorder-treatment services, the U.S. Attorney’s Office District of Rhode Island announced Tuesday. The settlement resolves allegations made by Former U.S. Attorney Zachary A. Cunha and Attorney General Peter F. Neronha in a 2023 complaint filed under the federal and state false claims acts. Both the state and the U.S. claimed both The Journey to Hope, Health and Healing Inc. and then-CEO Kenneth L. Richardson Jr. failed to provide treatment plans for adequate counseling of patients for whom they were providing methadone. At the same time, the organization and Richardson, the lawsuit alleges, collected more than $15 million from the federal- and state-administered Medicaid program between January 2015 and July 2021. The complaint also alleged that Journey maintained patient caseloads at a volume so high that it was physically impossible for counselors to provide required counseling services. The original lawsuit was filed in October 2020 when two former Journey employees, Sara Quaresma and Michael Delmonico, turned whistleblowers. The case was unsealed in April 2023, following the government filings. Additionally, the government plaintiffs claimed that the organization’s upper management instructed its staff to falsify records to make it seem that the missing services were provided to patients. Both federal and local officials stated in the suit that more than half of the services claimed by The Journey to Hope, Health and Healing during the noted time period were false. The government was looking to recover up to three times the amount paid as a result of the alleged false claims, plus penalties and was seeking a jury trial for the case. In October 2021, The Journey to Hope, Health and Healing’s four local treatment programs were acquired by Dalla-based BHG Holdings LLC, which does business as Behavioral Health Group. Under the settlement agreement, Journey and its CEO will pay $10.2 million to the United States and Rhode Island to resolve their alleged liability. The whistleblowers will receive approximately $2.04 million of the settlement money.