Home Boston Press Releases 2010 Avon Woman Sentenced to 63 Months for Committing Health Care Fraud
Info
This is archived material from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) website. It may contain outdated information and links may no longer function.

Avon Woman Sentenced to 63 Months for Committing Health Care Fraud

U.S. Attorney’s Office December 09, 2010
  • District of Massachusetts (617) 748-3100

BOSTON—An Avon woman was sentenced late yesterday in federal court for participating in a health care fraud scheme involving the submission of hundreds of false claims of physical therapy treatments to various automobile insurance companies.

MICHELINE LAMARRE, 43, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge George A. O’Toole to 63 months in federal prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release. LAMARRE was ordered to pay restitution to 19 different automobile insurance companies totaling $461,624, and she was ordered to forfeit $303,195.

Evidence presented during trial this summer established that Patrick Gelin and LAMARRE devised and executed a scheme to defraud various automobile insurance companies by submitting fraudulent bills for non-existent treatments. Gelin was the owner and president of Premium Care Physical Therapy, a Brockton clinic. LAMARRE was a licensed physical therapist at the clinic.

Beginning in 2002, Gelin directed and paid LAMARRE to falsify patient charts to reflect treatments that had not been provided to patients. Pursuant to these instructions, LAMARRE added false entries to legitimate patient charts and created completely falsified charts for other patients who had never received any physical therapy treatments. LAMARRE falsified 247 patient charts, which were then submitted to various automobile insurance companies for reimbursement. Relying upon the information in those fraudulent charts, the automobile insurance companies paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for physical therapy treatments that had never been administered.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz, Richard DesLauriers, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation - Boston Field Division and William Offord, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation in Boston, made the announcement today. The case was investigated and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney’s Shelbey D. Wright, James E. Arnold and George W. Vien, all from Ortiz’s Boston Office.

This content has been reproduced from its original source.