MAY 18, 2026
Boston – Attorney Jeffrey A. Newman Esq. of jeff Newman Law, a national whistleblower law firm, is pleased to announce a successful False Claims Act qui tam settlement against Nova Psychiatric Services, P.C. (Nova),Patriot Eldercare, Inc. (Patriot), and Alexandra Accardi, M.D. Defendants have agreed to pay
$1.4 million. Nova and Patriot (collectively also known as Prime Behavioral Health) are
behavioral health clinics with office locations in Quincy and Weymouth, Mass. Dr. Alexandra
Accardi is a psychiatrist and the founder, owner, President, and Director of Nova and Patriot. The
whistleblowers, Jessica Spissinger and Matthew Peculis, who were employees of the companies,
shall receive 17.5% of the settlement amount.
As part of the settlement agreement, Nova, Patriot, and Dr. Accardi admitted and
accepted responsibility for certain facts providing the basis for the settlement. According to court
documents, between January 1, 2017, and May 18, 2023, Nova and Patriot billed Medicare,
Medicaid, and the Massachusetts Group Insurance Commission (GIC) for medication
management and psychotherapy services that behavioral health clinicians did not perform.
Nova’s Chief Operating Officer (COO), Miguel Saravia, directed independent contractors
separate from the company’s billing departments to alter claims before their submission to
Medicare, Medicaid, and GIC by adding billing codes for additional psychotherapy and
medication management services that the Nova or Patriot behavioral health clinicians had not
performed. Nova and Patriot employees repeatedly raised concerns to Dr. Accardi and Saravia
about these billing practices, but Nova, Patriot, Accardi and Saravia made no changes to these
billing practices.
In September 2024, Saravia was charged with six counts of healthcare fraud related to
directing the independent contractors with no billing or medical training to submit false claims to
health insurance programs, including Medicare, Medicaid and GIC, on behalf of Nova and
Patriot. The charges concerned some of the same fraudulent billing resolved by the civil
settlement announced today. Saravia subsequently pleaded guilty to the charges and, on March
26, 2025, was sentenced to 3.5 months in prison, followed by one year of supervised release and
was ordered to pay $561,141 in restitution.
This case, which was filed in May 2019, was pursued vigorously by Assistant U.S.
Attorneys Steven Sharobem and Lindsey Ross of the Affirmative Civil Enforcement Unit. The
whistleblowers and their counsel, Jeffrey Newman and Rea Kasemi of Jeff Newman Law, wish
to note the dogged and persistent investigation and prosecution of these cases. Behavioral health
organizations play a critical role in our society, but just as physicians treating physical illnesses
must follow regulations when billing, psychologists, psychiatrists, and other behavioral health
providers must do the same. The case is captioned United States and Commonwealth of Massachusetts ex rel. Jessica
Spissinger and Matthew Peculis v. Nova Psychiatric Services, P.C. et al., No. 19-cv-11137-
ADB.The settlement agreement in this case can be found here https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/media/1441101/dl?inline
Jeffrey Newman, JD, MBA, a former prosecutor, is a whistleblower lawyer whose firm represents physicians and other healthcare providers who become whistleblowers in healthcare fraud cases. The firm also takes cases involving tariff fraud and export control fraud. Whistleblower laws in the U.S. allow individuals with information about export control violations or tariff fraud to report it under the False Claims Act, which, if successful, awards the whistleblower a percentage of the amount collected. The Firm’s website is www.JeffNewmanLaw.com. Attorney Newman can be reached at Jeff@Jeffnewmanlaw.com or at 617-823-3217. For other blogs, see: http://JeffNewmanLaw.com
