|
TRENTON – Attorney
General Stuart Rabner and Division of Criminal
Justice Director Gregory A. Paw announced
that a former licensed family therapist
has been sentenced after pleading guilty
to submitting fraudulent health insurance
claims.
According
to Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Greta Gooden
Brown, Evelyn S. Wilson, 65, of Englewood,
was ordered by Superior Court Judge Lois
Lipton in Bergen County to serve five years
probation. The sentence is pursuant to Wilson’s
Nov. 14 guilty plea to third-degree theft
by deception. She previously agreed to pay
restitution of $109,500 to Horizon Blue
Cross and Blue Shield. On April 14, 2006,
Wilson surrendered her two professional
licenses to the state boards that license
social workers and family counselors.
At
the guilty plea hearing before Judge Lipton,
Wilson, who formerly was licensed in New
Jersey as a clinical social worker and a
marriage and family therapist, admitted
that between Aug. 20, 2001 and June 16,
2004, she submitted insurance claims to
Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield for social
work, marriage counseling and family therapist
services that were never rendered to patients
or clients. An investigation determined
that Wilson submitted claims for several
hundred therapy sessions that did not take
place. Wilson used her residence as her
place of business.
State
Investigator Abraham Aquino, Civil Investigator
Martin Arasin and Deputy Attorney General
Cheryl A. Maccaroni handled the case.
“When
health care providers commit fraud, it is
particularly disturbing because the integrity
of the health care insurance claims process
depends on the trustworthiness of the licensed
professionals
involved,” said Insurance Fraud Prosecutor
Brown.
|
