Quincy Woman Charged With Medicare Fraud For Fourth Time

QUINCY, MA — A Quincy woman who owns a substance use treatment center was arraigned on charges in connection to a fraud scheme in which she billed public and private insurances for services that were never given to patients.

Nicole Kasimatis, 47, owner of Fortitude Counseling, was arraigned on Jan. 28 in Norfolk Superior Court on one count each of the charges of larceny over $1200 and filing a false health care claim.

Attorney General Maura Healey says Kasimatis billed Medicare approximately $151,000 for the non-existent services and was paid $44,000 on the fraudulent claims.

Judge Beverly Cannone set Kasimatis' bail at $25,000 with the conditions of home confinement with GPS monitoring, no travel, no contact with witnesses.

Kasimatis is also banned from providing services that could be reimbursed by public or private health insurance.

The arraignment follows six charges brought on against Kasimatis last November when she was indicted and arraigned on charges of Medicaid false claims, larceny over $1,200, and filing a false health care claim, three years after her last indictment.

Those charges claim Kasimatis billed for mental health services she did not perform, either because she was incarcerated or out of the country, Healey's office said. She also billed for services not rendered by licensed or supervised Fortitude employees; and billed for services under the name and number of providers who no longer worked for Fortitude and who did not provide the services, Healey added.

The amount of money Kasimatis gathered from MassHealth as a result of these schemes is more than $480,000. She also received $4,800 from private insurances for services not rendered.

Kasimatis used funds she received through Medicaid and Medicare for her own personal use, including vacations to Disney, Red Sox games, weight loss services, and even to post bail for her prior charges, Healey added.

In 2015 and 2018, Kasimatis was indicted by the Norfolk County DA's Office for public assistance fraud and larceny, she pleaded guilty in Norfolk Superior Court in November 2020.

Kasimatis is due back in Norfolk Superior Court for a pretrial conference on February 25 and is currently on probation for the 2015 and 2018 charges until November 2025.