Press Release: 8/15/2025

AG's Office Secures Guilty Plea and Restitution from Worcester-Based Home Health Company and Administrator for MassHealth Fraud

 

Administrator Sentenced to One Year in the House of Correction, Suspended for Three Years; Company Will Pay Restitution for Fraudulently Billing MassHealth 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

8/14/2025

MEDIA CONTACT

Kennedy Sims, Deputy Press Secretary

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Call Kennedy Sims, Deputy Press Secretary at (617) 727-2543

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Email Kennedy Sims, Deputy Press Secretary at Kennedy.Sims@mass.gov

BOSTON — The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) announced today that Union Home Health Care Services (Union) -- a Worcester-based group adult foster care (GAFC) provider -- and its administrator, Bernice Codjia, age 41, of Worcester, pleaded guilty in Worcester Superior Court to charges related to a scheme to defraud MassHealth, the state’s Medicaid program, of more than $1.6 million. 

Codjia was sentenced to one year in the House of Correction, suspended for three years, with the condition that she is prohibited from offering or providing services to MassHealth members, as well as billing or supervising billing to MassHealth for three years. Union was ordered to pay restitution in the full amount of $1.6 million, but because the company is no longer in business and is therefore unable to pay back the full amount, Union will pay nearly $300,000 as part of its sentence.  The Court also ordered Union to no longer offer or provide services to MassHealth members or bill MassHealth.

MassHealth’s GAFC program is designed to provide sufficient assistance to MassHealth members who are elderly or have disabilities to enable them to live independently. GAFC services assist MassHealth members with performing daily life activities, such as eating, bathing, housekeeping, and laundry. To be eligible for GAFC services, a registered nurse with the GAFC company must conduct an assessment of the member and attest to their eligibility for GAFC services, which is then submitted to MassHealth. Only after a MassHealth member’s eligibility is established may a GAFC provider begin providing and billing for GAFC services.

In November 2023, a Worcester County Grand Jury indicted Codjia and Union for Larceny Over $1,200 and Medicaid False Claims. The AGO alleged that, during her tenure as Union’s administrator, Codjia used fraudulent nursing assessments and forms to enroll MassHealth members and bill MassHealth for GAFC services that had not been authorized by a registered nurse. The AGO further alleges that Union billed for services it never rendered to MassHealth patients, including periods when those members were receiving treatment from different providers at inpatient facilities. As a result of these schemes, MassHealth paid Union nearly $1.6 million for fraudulent GAFC services.

Trials have been scheduled for the other co-defendants in this case.

This matter is representative of the AGO’s commitment to rooting out fraud and abuse in MassHealth’s home-based services programs. This month, the AGO announced indictments against a Northampton man for submitting timesheets to MassHealth for personal care attendant (PCA) services that were never provided. In June 2025, a PCA pleaded guilty and was given a state prison sentence for submitting claims for PCA services for a similar scheme. Also in June, the AGO secured a guilty plea resulting in a two-year suspended prison sentence from a MassHealth member who conspired with two of her PCAs to cause the submission of false claims to MassHealth for services that were never provided, were medically unnecessary, and/or were the result of kickbacks. 

This case was handled by Assistant Attorneys General Katie Davis and Molly Mahan, Investigator Ashley Marquez and Senior Healthcare Fraud Investigator Vanessa Asiatidis, all of the AG’s Medicaid Fraud Division. MassHealth, Coastline Elderly Services, the Massachusetts State Police assigned to the AG’s Office, and the Worcester Police Department provided assistance during the investigation. 

The Massachusetts Medicaid Fraud Division receives 75 percent of its funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under a grant award totaling $5,922,320 for federal fiscal year 2025. The remaining 25 percent, totaling $1,974,102 for FY 2025, is funded by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.