Press Release  Caregiver Indicted for Submitting False Timesheets After Patient’s Hospitalization and Death

Woburn — A Tewksbury woman has been indicted and arraigned in connection with a scheme to defraud the state’s Medicaid Program (MassHealth), Attorney General Maura Healey announced today.

Dawna DeMarco, age 33, of Tewksbury, was indicted by a Middlesex County Grand Jury on Medicaid False Claims (1 count) and Larceny Over $250 (1 count). At the arraignment in Middlesex Superior Court last week, DeMarco pleaded not guilty to the charges. She was released on personal recognizance and was ordered not to work as a home health aide or Personal Care Attendant (PCA). She is due back in Middlesex Superior Court on October 4 for a status hearing.

The AG’s Office alleges that DeMarco, who was hired through MassHealth to be a PCA for her aunt, submitted false timesheets from September and October 2016 claiming that she had provided PCA services to her aunt on dates when her aunt was in the hospital. The AG’s office also alleges that DeMarco continued submitting timesheets for services for her aunt through April 2017, after she had died. As a result of the defendant’s submission of these allegedly false timesheets, MassHealth paid in excess of $10,000 to the defendant through a fiscal intermediary.

PCAs are paid by MassHealth, through a fiscal intermediary, to help provide disabled beneficiaries with activities of daily living, including basic health care services. MassHealth regulations stipulate that PCA services cannot be rendered when the MassHealth member eligible for PCA services is in an inpatient hospital facility.

All of these charges are allegations and defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

This matter was investigated by Fraud Examiner Michelle Webber of the Bureau of Special Investigations of State Auditor Suzanne M. Bump’s Office. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant Attorney General Stephany Collamore and was investigated by Investigator Aleksandra Andriyevskaya, both of the AG’s Medicaid Fraud Division. Northeast Arc, the fiscal intermediary, also assisted with the investigation.

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