What began as a Maine Wire investigation into Maine’s expanding network of taxpayer-funded residential care providers has grown more troubling:
- Recurrent bed bug infestations caused by migrant workers who treated autism group homes like crash pads
- Non-English speaking DSPs cheating on certification exams they struggled to understand.
- A deceased doctor listed as the health official in charge of a company that’s billed $27.8 million to provide residential care for less than 16 patients
- A Medicaid agency that bills more per patient than any other autism group home operating in then country, according to Medicaid records
Another start-up MaineCare agency has come under scrutiny for its treatment of disabled clients and its anomalous billing patterns following an investigation by The Maine Wire into Maine’s controversial — and wildly expensive — autism group home program, known as MaineCare Section 21.
The Medicaid agency — Quality Care Access, LLC — was chartered in July 2020 by Jovin Bayingana, and the Portland-based company rapidly became one of the most lucrative new MaineCare businesses in New England.
According to Medicaid payment records obtained via a Freedom of Access Act request, the company billed the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) for $1.2 million in 2021, $5.3 million in 2022, $7.4 million in 2023, $6.7 million in 2024, and $7.2 million in 2025 — for a lifetime cost of $27.8 million.
The more detailed federal Medicaid dataset shows that throughout this time frame QCA had fewer than 16 patients in most years.
At the same time, the company’s monthly cost per client rose from $33,306 in 2022 to $39,234 in 2024.
Similarly, the average value of a Medicaid claim submitted by QCA, according to the federal records, rose from $6,966 to $8,736, indicating the company was increasing revenue by increasing billing rather than bringing on new clients.
According to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) records, the authorized health official for QCA is Dr. Justin Nsenga — which is slightly problematic because Nsenga reportedly died in a July 1, 2024 auto accident.
The autism company operates within Maine’s MaineCare Section 21 waiver program, a taxpayer-funded program that provides 24/7 care for adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or other intellectual and developmental disorders (IDD).
The state refers to this as “Community Based Residential Treatment,” or “A home-like residential facility providing habilitation, support and monitoring services to individuals diagnosed with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities.”
Yet an investigation by the Maine Wire, based on an analysis of state and federal records and interviews with people familiar with QCA’s operations, has found that the houses QCA owns via proxies within its financial network and rents back to the company are far from “home-like” for the disabled residents.
According to the MaineCare Benefits Manual, residents at Section 21 homes are supposed to have constant one-on-one support from trained Direct Support Professionals (DSPs).
But a former employee told The Maine Wire that QCA’s employees have gamed the system to obtain DSP credentials when, in reality, they can’t even read the exams they’re supposed to be passing. And that’s just the least stomach-churning allegation.
“Every home had bed bugs,” the ex-employee said. “They would never take them out of the houses to go and do anything.”
“It was like they were prisoners in their own home,” they said.
The former employee, who requested to speak anonymously for fear of retaliation by individuals within Maine’s residential care industry, also detailed a culture of neglect for residents’ health, safety, and disability rights.
The source also described an approach to managing employee rotations that prioritized sleeping accommodations for the DSPs over the rights and needs of disabled residents, a fact that contributed to the recurrent bed bug infestations that allegedly plagued the autism group homes.
“There was bed bugs, and it was because the staff was transferring their mattresses, their bedding, you know, from different facilities too. So they were all working for other companies while they were working for Quality Care Access. They were all had separate like second jobs, and so they would take their bedding. They would bring it into the homes, probably to sleep while they were supposed to be working. But they would transfer bed bugs back and forth to different homes. So one house would not have bed bugs. The next week, it had bed bugs because they were just transferring their mattresses, and I’m not kidding-actual mattresses, their bedding, blankets, you know, you name it. They would bring their laundry and they would do their own laundry at the facilities too. So they were, you know, just pretending like it was their own home.”
Rather than medical care facilities for disabled adults, the source described a taxpayer-subsidized system where non-English-speaking African migrants rotated from property to property couch-surfing rather than providing care.
The whistleblower alleged employees slept while on duty but that services were nevertheless billed as though work had been performed. She also alleged employees improperly took or handled clients’ money and described verbal and other mistreatment of people receiving services.
“I would say most of the staff didn’t speak English,” the source said. “I’d say about 90 92% probably spoke a different language, and then 8% spoke English.”
The former employee claimed some clients became so frustrated by an inability to communicate with staff that they engaged in dangerous or desperate behavior. She alleged that clients sometimes swallowed batteries or called police in hopes of being arrested simply because an encounter with law enforcement provided an opportunity to communicate with someone who spoke English.
“This client spoke to me directly, saying, ‘I like going to the hospital because the people there speak English and they pay attention to me,'” they said.
Because of the lack of English proficiency, would-be DSPs had to cheat in order to pass the certification tests required to work in MaineCare funded residential treatment facilities, a practice that was encouraged by Nsenga, the source said.
“He would help them with the answers,” the source said. “He would let them in the conference room all together in a group of you know 10, 12, 14, people leave. [them] all in the conference room with their cell phones, with the door shut, and and let them just take their test that way.”
Those allegations mirror what the DHHS described in termination letters to two other MaineCare Section 21 residential care providers, Paradise Residential Services and Beyond Residential Care.
[RELATED: Rwandan Immigration Lawyer Faces Bar Complaint After $13M Autism MaineCare Biz Axed…]
In the case of Beyond Residential Care, DHHS’s letter to CEO Felix R. Hagenimana alleged that the autism group home company “shuffled Members between settings to meet the needs of the Provider, not the Members’, and not in conformance with Members’ needs and choices as reflected in a Person-Centered Service Plan.”
Paradise executive Jocelyne Ininahazwe and Juste Arakaza managed to bill MaineCare for nearly $25 million before the company’s provider agreement was terminated, while Hagenimana’s firm bagged $13.8 million in taxpayer dollars before state officials pulled the plug.
Notably, both Ininahazwe and Hagenimana received their emergency termination letters on the very same day Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) published a video ridiculing CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz as a “TV Doctor” for asking questions about autism fraud within Maine’s massive medical welfare program.
QCA refused multiple requests for an interview and declined to comment for this story.
Instead, after this reporter interviewed a QCA resident who claimed that she was fearful of her health care providers, QCA sought to keep The Maine Wire away from its properties.
On Aug. 29, Gorham Police served the Maine Wire with a criminal trespass notice requested by QCA. In the notice, QCA falsely alleged that this reporter had been “trespassing in or on” QCA property.
There is one significant problem with any suggestion that this reporter secretly or unlawfully entered the home: We lawfully recorded the visit with the permission of the resident.
Video provided to the Gorham Police shows that not only did QCA staff invite this reporter inside, the resident — who is legally allowed to have any visitors she wants enter the home she’s renting — was eager to talk with a journalist.
The resident, whom the Maine Wire is declining to name, appeared fearful of the DSPs who were present at the home and agreed to speak only outside of the house, beyond earshot of the very people entrusted with her care. “They are mean to me.” “They don’t speak English.”
Watch our video exclusive here:
Unbelievable .
The people in the Mills administration that have allowed this to happen need to be prosecuted . .
This includes Governor Janet Mills herself and her feckless Attorney General Aaron Frey .
State Auditor Matt Dunlop should be made to stand before the judge as well .
Incompetence and Corruption of this scale can not go unpunished .
Is anyone to be held accountable for this ? .
Unbelievable !
The Gorham Police are mandated reporters, required to report suspected abuse to DHHS.
https://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/statutes/22/title22sec3477.html
I think there are some very serious questions that should be asked about THEM…
And EVERYONE should realize here , that if Hanna Pingree wins The Blaine House , ALL OF THIS is going to be swept right under the carpet , and for the Somali thieves , it will be right back to business as usual .
Look Out ! …….Young Hanna isn’t going to want ANYONE accusing HER of being a racist .
Choose Wisely when voting .