Brockton Home Health Agency Settles Fraud Allegations for $1.2 Million

BROCKTON — A Brockton-based home health agency and its owners will be paying $1.2 million to the state to settle allegations that they knowingly submitted false MassHealth claims, according to the state Attorney General's office.

The office said since December 2013, Independent at Home and owners Loretta Ihedioha and Corona Robinson allegedly submitted false claims for home health services.

These include services that were not authorized by a physician and services the agency did not provide, the office alleges.

According to the A.G.’s office, Independent, Ihedioha, and Robinson knew that they had received inappropriate payments due to submitting false claims, but allegedly made no attempt to notify MassHealth or return any money.

Get our free mobile app

As part of the settlement, Independent will make a $1.2 million payment and will implement a three-year program with policies and training to ensure compliance with MassHealth regulations.

A third-party compliance monitor will also conduct annual on-site audits.

Company representatives were not immediately available for comment.

“This company’s years of false billing has taken away state resources from the people who need it most,” said A.G. Maura Healey.

“We will continue our work to hold bad actors in the home health industry accountable for fraudulent behavior and are proud to have brought back millions to Massachusetts as a result of our investigations.”

Her office stated that its ongoing effort to combat fraud in the home health industry has returned more than $42 million to state coffers.

Since 2016, the office has successfully prosecuted three home health agencies and their owners and settled civilly with ten home health agencies, according to a statement.