Nayatt Road resident Priscilla Pascale, the owner and operator of St. Jude Home Care, allegedly placed unlicensed certified nursing assistants in patients’ homes and fraudulently billed Medicaid for CNA services in the amount of approximately $785,000.
On Tuesday morning, April 21, Ms. Pascale, 54, was arraigned in Providence County Superior Court on five counts of Medicaid fraud and five counts of conspiracy to commit Medicaid fraud. She was released on $10,000 personal recognizance. A pre-trial conference is scheduled for June 29.
“The investigation was referred to the Office of Attorney General by the Rhode Island Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) Program Integrity Unit after it was discovered through a routine audit that St. Jude was submitting billing forms with what is alleged to be altered dates that fraudulently reported in-home nursing surveys had been conducted on high-acuity patients,” stated a press release from the attorney general’s office.
The Program Integrity Unit then allegedly discovered time sheets for billing that had been submitted by people who were not licensed CNAs. The EOHHS then referred the case to the AG’s office, which conducted a formal investigation.
According to the Rhode Island Attorney General’s office, the US Health and Human Services Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services revoked St. Jude Home Care’s certification on July 15, 2014 “as a result of a deficient compliance inspection, thereby terminating the company’s ability to receive payments from Medicare.” Five days later, St. Jude Home Care, which is based in Cranston, was suspended from participating in the RI Medical Assistance Program.
In addition, Orfa Lemaire, 37, of East Greenwich, the director of clinical services for St. Jude Home Care, was charged with five counts of conspiracy to commit Medicaid fraud. She is scheduled to be arraigned in Providence County Superior Court on April 28.