Please Don’t Steal Your Patients’ Checks and Other Financial Information.

Diamond Deshields, age 27 was a nursing assistant at Garden Place Healthcare, 193 Pleasant St in Attleboro, Massachusetts. Deshields is accused of using a residents debit card and withdrawing $1,000 of the residents money without the residents permission. According to investigations, the resident asked the nursing assistant to use their credit card to get them a snack. The nursing assistant then allegedly abused her power and withdrew the money without ever saying anything to the resident. Deshields arraignment is set for December 1, 2022. She was indicted by a Bristol County Grand Jury on one count of the charge of Larceny from a Person Over 60.  

Caroline Khan, 54, was indicted by a Norfolk County Grand Jury on one count of the charge of Larceny in Dedham, Massachusetts. Khan was a unit secretary for a healthcare community in Brookline, Massachusetts. She used this secretary position to gain access to residents’ checkbooks and debit cards. She wrote a $2,000 check made out to her husband and used an additional $3,000 off of the resident’s debit card at various stores as well as getting rides from the Lyft transportation service. She was indicted by a Norfolk County Grand Jury on one count of the charge of Larceny from a Person Over 60. Khan will be arraigned in Norfolk Superior Court on December 6. 

These cases are part of AG Healey’s ongoing efforts to investigate nursing home employees who abuse their positions of trust to steal from vulnerable patients. Over the 2022 Fiscal year, Attorney General Maura Healey’s fraud division has recovered more than 71 million dollars. This specific fraud division investigates and prosecutes allegations related to fraud of the state’s Medicaid program, MassHealth. The fraud division is also responsible for reviewing complaints of abuse, neglect, mistreatment, and financial exploitation of patients in long-term care facilities and MassHealth members in any health care setting.

In Massachusetts, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) are combined into one program called MassHealth. Members of Masshealth are potentially eligible for doctor visits, prescription medications, and hospital stays through a government funded program.

Cases are being prosecuted by Assistant Attorney General William Champlin, Senior Health Care Fraud Investigators Erica Schlain and Mirlinda Sejdiu, and Investigator Vanessa Asiatidis, all of AG Healey’s Medicaid Fraud Division, with assistance from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, the Attleboro Police Department, Brookline Police Department, Wingate at Chestnut Hill and Garden Place Healthcare.

The AG’s Medicaid Fraud Division receives 75 percent of its funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under a grant award. The remaining 25 percent is funded by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Residents rights’:

To view a copy of the Residents Bill of Rights, CLICK HERE

I have questions about my duties as a Certified Nursing Assistant

To view information on H.E.R.O Institutes’ PATIENT CARE TECHNICIAN program, CLICK HERE

This article was written by Leslie Lawrence LPN, an Instructor for the phlebotomy technician program at H.E.R.O Institute located in Marietta, GA.