The Lewiston-based, Somali-operated Global Home Care has continued to rake in millions in MaineCare benefits despite overbilling the taxpayer-funded program by nearly $100,000.
[RELATED: Portland Office Becomes a Hub for Medicaid “Home Health” and Somali Money Transfers…]
Global Home Care, also known as Global Home Health Care, drew a substantial $7,164,937 in Medicaid funds from 2019 to 2024, according to Department of Health and Human Services records obtained by The Maine Wire through a Freedom of Access Act (FOAA) request.
That number is likely far from the total amount received by the company.
According to records from the DHHS Division of Licensing and Regulatory Services, Global Home Care has been licensed as a personal care agency since 2006 and has likely been receiving Medicaid funds for over a decade.
Audit records obtained by The Maine Wire show that MaineCare’s Program Integrity Unit reached out to Global Home Care’s registered agent, Garaad Dees, in December 2021, reminding him of their audit and warning him that information was missing from their records.
The audit records obtained by The Maine Wire begin with the December 2021 communication, though it is clear from the context that the audit started before then.
Dees, a Somali immigrant, responded to Auditor Katie Grotton, and promised to provide the additional information.
Following a significant gap in audit records, Grotton sent Dees a formal notice of violation in May 2023 after a review of records from 2017 to 2019 found that Global Home Care failed to submit the required documentation.
The company failed to provide the required information on employee qualifications or timesheets. In some cases, records showed that a billed service took place years before or after the employee providing it had been hired or terminated.
For example, Ismael Abdoulahe, who began working for the company in 2021, was marked as the provider for services that took place in 2018.
The specific error of billing for services dated before or after the provider’s employment arose in audits of multiple Somali-run home care providers reviewed by The Maine Wire.
[RELATED: Five Star Fraud: Records Show Home Health Agency Over-billed MaineCare by Nearly $400k, Disappeared…]
MaineCare found that Global Home Care overbilled the program by $100,435 and ordered them to repay the money.
Dees appealed the findings and submitted some additional records. In response, auditors revised the overbilling amount slightly and sent a new recoupment request for $98,330.
In February 2024, Dees requested permission to pay the recoupment amount in monthly installments of $3,000. It is not clear from the records whether MaineCare accepted the proposal or if the bill was ever paid in full.
Whether or not the funds were ever repaid, the audit and outstanding recoupment request did not prevent the company from continuing to draw millions in Medicaid funds.
In addition to the millions in Medicaid funding, Dees’ business also received a fully forgiven $90,000 COVID-era PPP loan. Strangely, PPP loan records from ProPublica place Global Home Care in the “specialized freight” rather than the healthcare industry.
Dees, a Somali immigrant, was somewhat of a media darling in the 2000s and 2010s.
The Portland Press Herald quoted his outrage in 2012 in response to a comment made by the then Lewiston mayor encouraging immigrants to assimilate into American culture.
In 2004, Mother Jones praised Dees as an outstanding example of the Somali immigrants moving into Maine, whom the outlet deemed “the New Yankees.”
Not all of Dees’ media attention was positive, however. In 2009, the Lewiston Sun Journal published an article detailing a federal raid against Global Home Care as part of a fraud investigation. Dees was served with a subpoena.
It is not clear what the ultimate result of that investigation was, but Global Home Care was able to continue operations.
Business records from OpenCorporates show that Global Home Care was not Dees’ only Maine business venture. He is listed as the agent for six now-inactive entities, including one non-profit simply named New Americans, two translation services with nearly identical names, and Geni Gem LLC, which specializes in “selling gemstones at exhibitions.”
Licensing and Medicaid billing records list Global Home Care’s address as 280 Lisbon Street in Lewiston, while some audit records corroborate that address; others place the business at 145 Lisbon Street.
280 Lisbon Street also houses the New Mainers Public Health Initiative, a non-profit headed by Hibo Omer. Omer’s non-profit drew $1,130,150 in Medicaid funds from 2019 to 2024.
