New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a landmark settlement with Americare, a New York City home care services agency, for underpaying thousands of home health aides and defrauding the Medicaid program.
An investigation by the Office of the Attorney General found that Americare failed to provide home health aides the compensation they were owed under the wage parity law while continuing to unlawfully seek Medicaid reimbursement. Under the agreement, Americare will deliver nearly $45 million in unpaid wages to thousands of home health aides who worked for the company between 2014 and 2020 and pay an additional $10 million to New York’s Medicaid program to resolve related state and federal False Claims Act violations. The combined $55 million settlement is the largest wage parity agreement ever secured by OAG.
“Home health aides work tirelessly to care for our most vulnerable neighbors every single day,” said Attorney General James. “Americare underpaid these workers for years, violating the law and cheating taxpayers. Today’s agreement returns nearly $55 million to the selfless individuals who earned it and to the Medicaid program they serve. My office will continue to fight for every dollar owed to New Yorkers and ensure no company profits by stealing from workers or from Medicaid.”
In a statement, an Americare spokesperson said, “We deeply regret that we were unable to fully satisfy our wage parity obligations for a period of time due to significant financial challenges that could have compromised our ability to continue serving the patients who rely on us for care. Our ability to achieve our mission of providing patients with high-quality healthcare in the comfort of their own homes depends entirely on the dedication and hard work of our home health aides.
The spokesperson continued, “Under these settlements, every affected employee will receive all wages to which they are entitled, and the Government has recognized our voluntary self-disclosure – which we made prior to any government inquiry – and full cooperation with its investigation. We take our legal obligations and responsibility to our employees very seriously and accrued the liability on our books. We have been in full compliance with the wage parity law for over five years and are pleased to put this matter behind us.”
The New York Attorney General’s Office went on to observe in its news release that home health aides are predominantly women, many of whom are immigrants or people of color. Aides provide in-home support to patients who are sick or homebound, including bathing, dressing, grooming, feeding, lifting, and transporting individuals who are unable to perform these tasks independently. Their work is often physically demanding and emotionally taxing. The New York Wage Parity Act was enacted to ensure home health aides receive fair compensation for the essential care they provide, establishing minimum wage and benefit requirements that licensed home care services agencies must pay to aides who provide services to Medicaid recipients. Medicaid reimbursement for home care services is conditioned on compliance with these requirements.
Details of the Probe and Settlement
An OAG investigation revealed that between 2014 and 2020, Americare elected to pay aides through a combination of wages and benefits such as paid time off and health coverage. Although the company tracked the full payment amounts required under the law, OAG discovered that aides did not actually receive those full amounts. Instead, Americare systematically underpaid more than 10,000 workers, denying them nearly $45 million in legally required compensation. This figure was derived from Americare’s own internal calculations documenting its underpayments over six years.
Under the agreement, Americare will pay $44,999,648 over 32 months to compensate current and former aides for unpaid wage parity benefits owed from January 1, 2014 through March 31, 2020. More than 10,000 workers are eligible for restitution and will be contacted by an independent settlement administrator with notices about the settlement and instructions for obtaining their payment. Americare will fund the administrator with an additional $350,000. Americare will also pay $10 million to resolve its federal and state False Claims Act liability for seeking Medicaid reimbursement while failing to comply with wage parity requirements. Of that amount, $6 million will go to New York state and $4 million will go to the federal government.
To prevent future wage theft, Attorney General James is requiring Americare to revise its policies and procedures to fully comply with the Wage Parity Act, train staff on updated rules, and provide regular reports to OAG for three years or six months after all payments are completed, whichever is longer. If Americare fails to comply with the agreement, including missing payments or failing to implement required reforms, OAG may seek a civil judgment for unpaid amounts, pursue liquidated damages, or initiate additional enforcement actions.
The agreement with Americare stems from a whistleblower qui tam complaint filed in 2017 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, alleging Medicaid fraud under the federal and state False Claims Acts. The New York False Claims Act allows individuals to file actions on behalf of the government and, when appropriate, share in any recovery. The OAG Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York have filed a notice of intervention in the qui tam lawsuit for purposes of settling the Medicaid fraud claims. Investigations into other LCHSAs named in the complaint remain ongoing.
The investigations and settlements were a coordinated effort between OAG and EDNY. Attorney General James thanks EDNY for their collaboration on this matter.
This matter was handled for the Labor Bureau by Assistant Attorneys General Anielka Godinez, Kristen Ferguson, and Abigail Ramos, under the supervision of Civil Enforcement Section Chief Fiona J. Kaye, Deputy Labor Bureau Chief Young Lee, and Labor Bureau Chief Karen Cacace, with assistance from Auditor Investigator Erica Ciccarelli. The Labor Bureau is a part of the Division for Social Justice, which is led by Chief Deputy Attorney General Meghan Faux. This matter was handled for MFCU by Special Assistant Attorneys General Elizabeth Silverman, Jill D. Brenner, and Tiffany Castleman-Smith, under the supervision of MFCU Civil Enforcement Division Chief Alee N. Scott and Deputy Chief Diana Elkind. The case was investigated by Principal Auditor Investigator Milan Shah, with the assistance of Regional Chief Auditor Stacey Millis. MFCU is led by Deputy Attorney General Amy Held and Assistant Deputy Attorney General Paul J. Mahoney. MFCU is a part of the Division for Criminal Justice, which is led by Chief Deputy Attorney General José Maldonado. Both the Division for Criminal Justice and the Division for Social Justice are overseen by First Deputy Attorney General Jennifer Levy.
