Richard A. Gaudette of Happy at Home Care and Assistance, LLC, Sentenced to State Prison for Medicaid Fraud

Concord, NH – Attorney General Gordon J. MacDonald announces that Richard A. Gaudette, age 63, of Danville, New Hampshire was sentenced on Monday, December 30, 2019, in the Merrimack County Superior Court for Medicaid fraud.

Mr. Gaudette was sentenced to serve one and a half to three years in the state prison with six months suspended off the minimum. The Court also ordered Mr. Gaudette to pay up to $110,805.24 in restitution to be paid to the Department of Health and Human Services. The imposition of the sentence is stayed pending Mr. Gaudette's appeal.

A jury convicted Mr. Gaudette on October 2, 2019, of engaging in a fraudulent scheme of submitting false claims for Medicaid funds with the intent to defraud the State. Mr. Gaudette had been the owner of Happy at Home Care and Assistance, LLC, a company licensed to provide in-home personal care services to Medicaid beneficiaries.

Over a four-year period, Mr. Gaudette claimed and received reimbursement for in-home, personal care services that were never actually provided, which included periods when Happy at Home clients were not at home, but instead were in hospitals, in nursing homes, or deceased.

Assistant Attorney General Bryan J. Townsend II, Assistant Attorney General Thomas T. Worboys, and Investigator Timothy E. Brackett of the Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit investigated and prosecuted this case following a referral from the Program Integrity Unit of the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services.

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.