Dorchester Man Sentenced to 72 Months in Prison for Committing Health Care Fraud

BOSTON, MA—A Dorchester man was sentenced today in federal court for a health care fraud scheme involving the submission of hundreds of false claims of physical therapy treatments to various automobile insurance companies.

PATRICK GELIN, 39, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge George A. O’Toole to six years' imprisonment, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay restitution to 19 different automobile insurance companies totaling $461,624, and forfeit $303,195.

Evidence presented during trial established that Gelin and Micheline 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, and Lamarre was a licensed physical therapist at the clinic. Trial evidence established that 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. Evidence showed that automobile insurance companies paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in connection with these false claims.

Lamarre is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 8, 2010, at 2:30 p.m.

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