BOSTON — A Westford woman was sentenced to 12 years in prison after being convicted of a home health care fraud scheme.
Faith Newton, 56, operated Arbor Homecare Services LLC. from January 2013 to January 2017 where Newton and other workers engaged in a conspiracy to use the homecare services to defraud MassHealth of at least $100 million.
Specifically, through Arbor, Newton and the others instructed by Newton would bill for home health services that were never provided. Alongside that, Newton ordered co-conspirators to falsify notes from nursing visits that never happened.
False claims were also submitted through Arbor to MassHealth for services from home health aides who were not trained in the law requiring 75 hours. Newton would either forge training documents or provide fictitious exams to the aides with the answer keys provided to them.
Under Newton’s command, Arbor often paid kickbacks for patient referrals and entered sham employment relationships with patients’ family members by promising home health aide services that were either unnecessary or billing the families for medical visits that did not happen, which Newton knew.
Additionally, Newton and Arbor would flood clinics with Plans of Care that were not medically necessary, pressuring doctors to sign off.
“Faith Newton betrayed the trust of her patients and their families when she used them as pawns in a massive $100 million home health care fraud scheme to fund her lavish lifestyle by paying kickbacks and billing for services she never provided, treatments that were not medically necessary, and visits by sham home health aides who were not certified or trained,” said Jodi Cohen, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division. “It’s clear that the guiding principle here was greed. Anyone involved in, or entertaining, similar activity should know that health care fraud is a priority for the FBI, and we will pursue anyone trying to steal from this country’s vital health care system.”
In 2017, when learning that Arbor was cut off from MassHealth, Newton used money from Arbor’s payroll account to cut separate $2 million checks for her and her husband. She backdated the checks to 2016 to make them seem like Christmas bonuses, when in fact the checks were written and negotiated for January 2017.
Newton was officially arrested and charged in February 2021. Additionally, Newton’s co-defendant Winnie Waruru was arrested alongside her. Waruru pleaded guilty to her role in the conspiracy in September 2022 and is awaiting a scheduling date.
In July 2024, Newton was found guilty of:
- one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud
- one count of healthcare fraud
- three counts of money laundering
The jury, however, found Newton not guilty of one count of money laundering conspiracy.
“Faith Newton seemed to think she could execute a $100 million health care fraud scheme at the expense of American taxpayers and get away with it, but she was grossly mistaken,” said Special Agent in Charge Roberto Coviello of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Following Newton’s 12-year sentence, she will have three years of supervised release, and pay a fine of $250,000 and restitution in the amount of $99,734,517.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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