BOSTON – Taunton-based Northeast Health Services LLC and its former owners have agreed to pay almost $1 million to MassHealth to resolve allegations it submitted fraudulent claims, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell announced on Monday.
The health care provider allegedly allowed fraudulent claims to be submitted to MassHealth by failing to properly supervise clinicians, according to the attorney general’s office. Northeast and its former owners, Robert A. Conway and Wallace W. Varonko, have agreed to settle the matter with MassHealth for $940,000.
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“As we urgently address the mental and behavioral health crisis facing our state, our office will continue to enforce the highest possible standards of care among mental health providers to ensure vulnerable residents are receiving these critical health care services from trained professionals,” Campbell said.
MassHealth pays for mental health services provided to its members, but requires qualified clinicians and counselors to be subject to certain requirements. Northeast allegedly failed to ensure that clinicians received appropriate supervision from a licensed clinician.
This is only the latest in a series of settlements that are part of the attorney general’s efforts to “safeguard high-quality mental and behavioral health services for MassHealth members,” the office said. These include a $4.6 million settlement paid by Pathways of Massachusetts and Molina Healthcare Inc. in 2022 and a $25 million settlement paid by a private equity firm and former executives of South Bay Mental Health Center Inc. in 2021, both for submitting fraudulent claims to MassHealth.
In 2022, the attorney general’s office also found Nicole Kasimatis, the owner and operator of Fortitude Counseling and Recovery Center, guilty for billing MassHealth for services she did not perform. She was sentenced to three to four years in state prison.
Claudia Chiappa is a PBN staff writer. You may contact her at Chiappa@PBN.com.
