The state has asked Attorney General Maura Healey to investigate a dozen home health care service providers suspected of submitting fraudulent bills.

The Boston Globe reports that the Executive Office of Health and Human Services referred the providers to the attorney general's Medicaid Fraud Division after reviewing internal data and fielding consumer complaints that pointed to possible fraud.

State officials did not detail what kind of wrongdoing they suspect. Medicaid fraud often includes billing for unnecessary services.

The state's costs for providing home health services have been soaring. MassHealth, the state Medicaid program, is on track to spend more than $755 million on home health services in the current fiscal year, an 82 percent increase from two years earlier.

Massachusetts works with 195 home health providers overall. (Associated Press)

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