Home Care Company Owner Pleads Guilty to Medicaid Fraud, Agrees to Pay $1,000,000 Restitution

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Concord, NH -- Attorney General John M. Formella announces that Richard Wennerberg, age 72, of Grantham, pleaded guilty and was sentenced on Tuesday, July 13, 2021 in the Merrimack County Superior Court to two counts of class B felony Medicaid fraud.

Wennerberg is the owner of Alternative Care @ Home, LLC, a company licensed to provide in-home personal care services to Medicaid beneficiaries. Between January 2015 and December 2018, Wennerberg submitted claims for reimbursement for in-home, personal care services that were never actually provided, and which included periods when Alternative Care's clients were not at home, but instead were in hospitals or nursing homes. Additionally, from as early as December 2015, Wennerberg billed Medicaid up to the maximum hours allowed under certain clients' service authorizations, knowing that his employees did not actually provide care for all of those hours, and would use the difference to reimburse some caregivers for mileage.

The Merrimack County Superior Court sentenced Wennerberg to serve twelve months in the House of Corrections with a recommendation for administrative home confinement and ordered Wennerberg to pay $1,000,000 in restitution. Wennerberg also entered a plea of guilty to a third charge of Medicaid fraud against his company, which excludes Alternative Care @ Home, LLC from future participation in federal health care programs.

Senior Assistant Attorney General Thomas T. Worboys, Assistant Attorney General Stephanie J. Johnson, Assistant Attorney General Bryan J. Townsend II, and Investigator Timothy E. Brackett investigated and prosecuted this case. The Program Integrity Unit of the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services also investigated and referred the matter to the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.

The Medicaid Fraud Control Unit investigates and prosecutes fraud by healthcare providers who treat Medicaid beneficiaries. Healthcare providers include, but are not limited to, hospitals, nursing homes, doctors, dentists, pharmacies, ambulance companies, and anyone else who is paid for providing healthcare services to Medicaid beneficiaries. If you would like to report a case of provider fraud, please contact the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit at (603) 271-1246. The Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the New Hampshire Department of Justice receives 75 percent of its funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under a grant award totaling $855,236 for Federal fiscal year (FY) 2021. The remaining 25 percent, totaling $285,078 for FY 2021 is funded by the State of New Hampshire.