Worcester woman admits to defrauding MassHealth of $36K
WORCESTER – A city woman pleaded guilty in Worcester Superior Court to defrauding MassHealth of $36,000, claiming herself as her own personal care assistant.
Amy Sutherland, 51, used her maiden name, Amy Petrucelli, to submit timesheets for personal care assistant services between August 2017 and August 2019, according to the office of Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell. MassHealth does not allow such an arrangement.
MassHealth’s personal care program connects members with long-term disabilities with personal care assistants to help them with daily activities. Both the members and the personal care assistants are required to submit bi-weekly timesheets for the work.
Even though the members are responsible to hire the assistants, the pay comes from a MassHealth fund.
Sutherland was arraigned in November 2020, soon after her fraud was discovered, when contact information was requested. During an investigation, Sutherland and Petrucelli were found to have the same birthday and mailing address.
For each of the counts of medical assistance fraud and larceny over $1,200, Sutherland was sentenced to one year in the house of correction, to serve concurrently.
Two other individuals were also sentenced in recent weeks for unrelated but similar charges, according to the office of the attorney general.
Troy Fortin, 51, of New Bedford, faces two years in jail after pleading guilty April 25 at the Bristol County Superior Court to fraudulently submitting timesheets between 2015 and 2020 to MassHealth for $49,000 worth of PCA services he did not receive from two PCAs, even while the PCAs were hospitalized or working at other jobs.
Angelica Pierni, 32, of Plymouth, pleaded guilty June 2 at the Plymouth County Superior Court to submitting false PCA timesheets for hours during which Pierni was actually working for a different employer. She defrauded MassHealth of $53,000 in false claims.
Pierni will serve two years of probation, is required to pay full restitution to MassHealth, and is banned from working in the PCA program again.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Worcester woman admits to defrauding MassHealth of $36K
