WASHINGTON – A Detroit-area social worker pleaded guilty for his role in a $3.1 million Medicare fraud scheme, the Justice Department, FBI and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced today.
Gregory Lawrence, 54, of Detroit, pleaded guilty yesterday before U.S. District Court Judge Victoria A. Roberts in the Eastern District of Michigan to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
On July 30, 2012, Lawrence’s co-conspirators Felicia Marsh, 54, and Jamie Moreau, 34, both of Detroit, each pleaded guilty before Judge Roberts in the Eastern District of Michigan to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud for their roles in the scheme.
According to plea documents, Lawrence, Marsh and Moreau were employees at New Century Adult Day Program Services LLC, a purported psychotherapy clinic in Flint, Mich. From November 2009 to April 2012, New Century used Medicare beneficiary information to bill Medicare for more than $3.1 million in psychotherapy services that were not medically necessary and/or not provided. Court documents reveal that New Century lured Medicare beneficiaries – many of whom were mentally or developmentally disabled – from adult foster care homes and off the street with the promise of seeing a doctor who would prescribe them prescription pain medication. When they arrived at New Century, beneficiaries were told that they must sign up for its psychotherapy program in order to see the doctor. New Century would use the signatures provided by these beneficiaries as a basis to bill Medicare for group and individual psychotherapy purportedly rendered to them. In fact, no psychotherapy was provided.
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