A New Hampshire man will pay $1 million in restitution after being convicted of Medicaid fraud. Richard Wennerberg, 72, of Grantham, has been sentenced after pleading guilty to two counts of Medicaid fraud.
Wennerberg owned Alternative Care @ Home LLC., a registered Hopkinton business that provided licensed, at home, personal care services to Medicaid recipients. From 2015 to 2018, Wennerberg filed reimbursement claims for Alternative Care services that were never actually provided. (The best alternative would have been to follow the law.)
The listed recipients of these fictious services were not actual patients of Alternative Care. They were patients at nursing homes and hospitals. (Fraudsters love to prey on those who are vulnerable.)
The maximum number of hours Medicaid allowed for specific services was billed despite the Alternative Care team not providing care during all of the billed hours reported. (Lying about patient names must not have been enough. He had to dig himself in even deeper.) The money received was allegedly used to pay Wennerberg’s employed caregivers for their mileage.
Wennerberg pleaded guilty to two counts of Medicaid fraud and to a third count on behalf of Alternative Care. He was sentenced to one year in prison and the judge recommended he also be placed on administrative home confinement. And Alternative Care will no longer be able to participate in federal health care programs. (That sounds like a great alternative for keeping this perpetrator from ever defrauding again.)
Today’s Fraud of the Day comes from an article, “Grantham Man With At-Home Care Business Sentenced for Fraud, Ordered to Pay $1 Million,” published by Valley News on July 13, 2021.
CONCORD — A 72-year-old Grantham man has been ordered to pay $1 million in restitution after he was convicted of Medicaid fraud Tuesday, according to a news release from the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office.
Richard Wennerberg pleaded guilty to two counts of felony Medicaid fraud during a hearing in Merrimack County Superior Court Tuesday, the release said. A judge sentenced him to 12 months in prison, with a recommendation for administrative home confinement, and ordered him to pay the restitution.
