14:01 PM
...Earlier this month, (click here) Dr. Alphonso Berry and two criminal colleagues—a married couple named Marcus and Beth Jenkins—pled guilty to defrauding the government by submitting more than $13.2 million worth of phony claims to Medicare over a seven-year period for group and individual psychotherapy sessions that were never provided.
How the scam operated. In 2004, Marcus and Beth Jenkins incorporated Quality Recreation and Rehabilitation (QRR), an adult day care center that claimed to provide psychotherapy services. At the same time, they also operated adult foster care homes in the Detroit area that provided 24-hour personal care, protection, and supervision for individuals who were—for the most part—mentally or physically disabled. The couple obtained Medicare provider numbers for QRR and clinicians working on staff, including Dr. Alphonso Berry.
For four years, the Jenkinses transported Medicare beneficiaries residing at adult foster care homes (both theirs and others) to QRR, and in concert with Dr. Berry—who often signed patient progress charts and progress notes for individual and group psychotherapy sessions—submitted claims to Medicare for psychotherapy services for these beneficiaries that were never provided. The funds received from Medicare—approximately $1.8 million—were diverted from QRR’s bank accounts into the hands of the Jenkinses and Dr. Berry....
