Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell announced that her office reached a $2.5 million settlement with Leominster-based Regional Home Care, Inc, resolving allegations that the company engaged in unfair, deceptive and abusive debt collection practices in violation of state consumer law and debt collection regulations and improperly collected money from members of MassHealth, the state’s Medicaid program, for balances not owed or that were already paid for by MassHealth. The assurance of discontinuance, filed in Suffolk Superior Court, with Regional Home Care alleges that the company engaged in aggressive debt collection tactics, including making misleading threats about the consequences of nonpayment and failing to inform consumers of their legal rights to dispute and obtain validation of their debts. Regional Home Care is a medical equipment supplier and service provider that sells and rents equipment such as oxygen tanks and Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) devices to treat respiratory ailments like oxygen deficiency and sleep apnea. Regional Home Care also serves low-income consumers enrolled in MassHealth.
