HAVERHILL — The state attorney general's office said it was wrong to say a local medical supply company used "fraudulent" practices in overbilling the state for equipment for Medicaid patients.
Yesterday, a spokesman for the office said it should not have used the word "fraudulent" in a press release this week that detailed the Home Care Specialists company's agreement to pay $118,524 to the state after an investigation.
Harry Pierre, deputy press secretary for Attorney General Martha Coakley, said the use of "fraudulent" in the release was a "mistake." The release should have described the problem as a case of improper billing practices, he said. The word "improper" was put on the attorney general's Web site after complaints from the owner of the company.
Pierre said investigators from the office's fraud division found "no evidence of fraud" or that the improper billing was intentional. After the attorney general's release became public this week, prompting a story by The Eagle-Tribune, company owner Bill Desmarais insisted his firm did nothing intentional in making the billing mistakes.
Desmarais said the attorney general's use of the word "fraudulent" has marred the reputation of his company, which he and co-owner Gary Rudis have operated since 1979 along with various family members.
"We've had a great reputation, and to have it maligned with a mistake by the attorney general, how can you repair it?" Desmarais said. "You can't turn it back."
"We have quite a few of our adult children and siblings in this company with us, and we just want to get our names cleared along with that of the business," he said. "In no way was there any fraud."
Earlier this week, Desmarais said, "What we agreed to (in the $118,524 settlement) was that the billing errors were of a technical nature. There no was intentional deception. It was a mistake."
His said the billing mistakes were partly the result of a complicated Medicaid reimbursement process.
As part of the agreement, Home Care Specialists must allow reviews of its financial books by an outside auditor for one year, the attorney general's release said.
The company at 113 Neck Road in the city's Ward Hill Business Park provides oxygen and medical equipment to homes and nursing homes in Haverhill and elsewhere in the Merrimack Valley.
The release said that from 1996 to 2006, the company overcharged Medicaid for pieces of equipment that should have been billed as a single piece of equipment, equipment that was no longer medically necessary, and items and services at higher rates than those approved by MassHealth.
The company cooperated with the state's investigation and identified some erroneous billing overcharges on its own, the attorney general's release said.
A Web site for the company says it opened in 1979 and owns a fleet of 18 vans, box trucks and cars that deliver oxygen tanks and other medical supplies to patients' homes and nursing homes. The company has about 90 employees, Desmarais said.
The company also offers sleep therapy equipment and consultations from registered nurses and respiratory therapists, the Web site says. Its distribution center is in Dover, N.H.
