South Berwick pair arrested in Medicaid fraud scheme face up to 30 years

CONCORD - The South Berwick owner and an employee of a Massachusetts health care company were arrested on Thursday in a medicaid fraud scheme.

Michael A. Maggiacomo, 50, and Tina M. Allen, 46, are charged with two class B felony counts of medicaid fraud and one class A felony count of theft by deception.

Maggiacomo is the owner of Alerion Home Care and Wellness Solutions, a home health care company. The charges allege that he and Allen, an Alerion employee, submitted claims for payment to New Hampshire Medicaid for home nursing services that were not actually rendered because the patients were not residing at home.

The charges further allege that when the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services' Program Integrity Unit audited Alerion, Allen and Maggiacomo presented falsified nursing notes to support Alerion's false Medicaid claims.

The company's home office is listed as Water Street in Newburyport, Mass.

On its websote home page it bills itself as providing "superior in home care and wellness solutions to those individuals needing personal care, companionship and help with activities of daily living." The company has been in business since 2014.

The maximum penalty for each Medicaid fraud charge is 3½ to 7 years, while the maximum penalty for theft by deception is 7½ to 15 year.

Allen and Maggiacomo will be arraigned in the Merrimack County Superior Court on a date not yet determined.

If anyone would like to report a case of provider fraud, contact the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit at (603) 271-1246.