Health-care agency halts services

An embattled Tewksbury home health-care agency has stopped serving clients, days before its Medicare reimbursements were to be terminated.

[limberly]

i'm feeling so sorry for these families that are left hangin with out any back up!!! well i'm avaliable to fill the gap that has beenopened i have 25 yrs experiance as an aid and i'm avaliable in tewksbury and lowell.

[What goes around- Karma]

Porter said "Hundreds of people are being needlessly hurt." She sat on the Board of Directors at the Northeast Independent Living Program and had no problem sitting in on the termination of two dedicated and long time employees. The E.D and others had no problem terminating two people with disabilities and causing plenty of needlessly hurt. FYI - the Northeast Independent Living Program use to be run by and for people with disabilities.
SEE: save-nilp.blogspot.com

[Elderly Abuser]

Hopefully this woman is severely mentally ill because no other excuse is viable. She has OBVIOUSLY ignored all State and federal regs. She has OBVIOUSLY put the most vunerable of our society in jeopardy. She has used the hard working aides that are the ones that truly care. She should be ashamed of herself. There is no excuse for her lies deceit and immoral ways. She needs to be in jail.

[SJT]

My 22 year-old daughter (a student at UMassLowell) worked for Ms. Porter and Excel Homecare for several months from 2008-09. She was paid for less than 1/2 the time she worked for this company. Ms. Porter still owes my daughter more than $1,000 in salary. Money that's very much needed as a student. One check, cashed at a Market Basket bounced. Ms. Porter told my daughter she was going to 'take care of the fees and cover the check'-as of this date-several months later- that has NOT happened. Luckily for my daughter, Market Basket said they will not 'ruin her credit' by reporting the unpaid amount to credit bureaus. . The Atty. General's Office does have the complaints from the employees on file-but it doesn't seem like any of them will receive the monies owed to them. Some were evicted from apartments; others couldn't pay mortgages or even buy their children Xmas presents last year. Hopefully some Gov't money will be advanced to pay the salaries of the workers who are owed.

[Investigate further]

Maybe the Attorney Generals office should do an investigation of the other charitable and non profit organizations that Diane Porter has had her hands in !!!!!!!
Diane Porter is also the Treasurer on the board of Directors for the Northeast Independent Living Program in Lawrence Ma. I am a participant of the Northeast independent Living program. I was at their Annual Meeting in October of 2008. The Question was asked where $300,000 went. We could not get a straight answer. Diane sat at the head table in front of the room with her face in her hands. There have been some real shady things happening with money at NILP. They hired an Executive Director and paid her close to $40.000 more than the founding Director of 27 years, oh yeah; her friend was another board member. In the January 2009 minutes of the NILP Board of Directors a question about a $55,000 line of credit that was missing in June of 2008 was raised with no answer. There have been significant raises given to some select management staff .These are all taxpayer dollars and the last time I checked we were in a recession. They have a new accountant that was brought in by Diane Porter (whom worked for her at Excel home care). A few months after he was hired they brought in his wife to help out with the “Book Keeping”. Let it be noted that there is a full time Book Keeper who was one of the people that received one of the large pay raises. Could this be hush money?
My understanding is that Diane’s agency also receives a significant amount of referrals from NILP. Does anybody care about conflict of interest anymore? Before we put things behind us Diane, maybe the Attorney Generals office should do an investigation of the other charitable organizations you are involved with.

[Shutter this business]

My son, too, was an employee of Diane's... he was a college senior when she stopped paying him in March '09. There was always an excuse: the checks were late, she changed payroll companies, the checks were made out wrong, I'll hand-deliver them to you (then never show), blah-blah-blah. My son went without food, gas, he lost his apartment, had to stop seeing his little boy client (who cried his eyes out when told my son couldn't see him anymore) and now lives at home and is still unemployed because this individual played him - and all her employees - like a violin to the very end. We DO have a complaint in with the AG's office - and I hope the local DA takes a hard, fast look at this woman for fraud.
How does the town of Tewksbury allow a fraudulent business like this to operate within its borders?