Owner of Erie home care agency charged with fraud, endangering clients

- Tina Bell, owner of the now-defunct Erie home care business Superior Health Inc., has been charged with fraud and other financial offenses over more than $1 million in Medicaid payments
- Grand jury presentment alleges Bell and her company failed to provide adequate care for clients despite billing Medicaid for services
- A witness described Bell as living a lavish lifestyle, spending significant sums of money on herself while her clients suffered from inadequate care, according to grand jury
The owner of a now-defunct Erie home care business has been charged with fraud and other financial offenses after a statewide grand jury found that she received more than $1 million from Medicaid between 2014 and 2020 for care that did not occur or that was so inadequate that it was worthless.
The grand jury also alleged that the defendant, Tina Bell, the owner of Superior Health Inc., endangered the welfare of two clients who were dependent on her care.
At the time she failed to provide adequate services or any services at all, Bell was enjoying a lavish lifestyle, so much so that she “thought she was Beyonce,” a witness told the grand jury.
Superior Health’s employees were personal care attendants who were to assist clients in their residences, such as by helping them bathe, dress and eat.
In one instance, according to the grand jury, Bell and Superior Health failed to provide adequate care for a client identified as R.S., an Erie resident whose left side was paralyzed due to a stroke.
R.S., according to the grand jury, was left alone, bedridden, for as many as 12 hours a day when Superior Health employees were supposed to be with him. The smell in his bedroom, a witness told the grand jury, was “pungent of urine and feces.”
In another instance, according to the grand jury, Bell and Superior Health failed to provide adequate care for a client identified as B.H., an Erie resident who was in a wheelchair and paralyzed from the waist down due to a gunshot wound.
B.H., who used a colostomy bag, did not have enough Superior Health employees to help him as often as he needed, and one worker who did help him once found him “saturated in urine or feces because he could not get out of bed and nobody was present to care for him,” according to the grand jury report. “When Bell was told about this, she provided no solution and simply said there was no coverage.”
Owner of care agency had ‘expensive lifestyle,’ witness says
Bell, 56, was spending lots of money on herself while the clients of Superior Health were in need, the grand jury alleged in its report. One witness who worked for Bell told the grand jury that Bell was “living beyond her means” and “always flaunting her expensive lifestyle by going to Dallas Cowboys football games, driving luxury vehicles, wearing expensive perfumes and buying big purses.”
The witness, according to the grand jury, made that comment that Bell “thought she was Beyonce.”
The grand jury said the witness also remarked that “Bell had multiple houses and described the house she was living in as looking like a timeshare in Florida because it was so expensive.”
Bell is listed in arrest records as living in Wernersville, Berks County, though she also had a residence in Erie, according to the grand jury report. Superior Health is registered in Berks County, according to state business records, and it had an Erie office in the Griswold Plaza building, according to the grand jury report. Bell closed the business in 2021, according to the report.
Bell could not be reached for comment. No one answered the phone at the number listed for her in arrest records.
Defendant ‘put patients at risk,’ attorney general says
The statewide grand jury that investigated Bell and Superior Health was seated in Allegheny County, according to court records. On Jan. 7, the grand jury returned its report, or presentment. The panel recommended that Bell face criminal charges.
The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office charged her on Thursday. She is accused of 12 felonies, including Medicaid fraud, tampering with public records and two counts of endangering the care of a care dependent person for whom she was responsible.
Bell “allegedly put patients at risk while providing subpar care and services, and defrauded a system designed to help the most vulnerable Pennsylvanians,” Attorney General Michelle Henry said in announcing the charges.
Bell was arraigned on Thursday before Erie 2nd Ward District Judge Edward Wilson, who released her on an unsecured bond of $100,000. The case is assigned to Erie 3rd Ward District Judge Alison Scarpitti. She scheduled a preliminary hearing for Jan. 31.
Tip from outside agency spurred probe
The Attorney General’s Office started investigating Bell and Superior Health in 2020. The grand jury said the complaint that triggered the probe originated with A Bridge to Independence, an organization that coordinates services for individuals in Pennsylvania with physical and mental disabilities.
The activities for which Bell was charged occurred between May 2014 and November 2020, according to the grand jury report.
“Bell,” the grand jury alleges, “has retained state funds to this day.”
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