Rehab chain owner arrested for healthcare fraud

Federal prosecutors said on Thursday the owner of a chain of substance abuse clinics in Massachusetts and Rhode Island and an employee of the company were charged with defrauding health insurers of millions of dollars in depriving patients of essential services.

Michael Brier, 60, owner of Recovery Connection Centers of America, Inc., was arrested at his home in Newton, Massachusetts and charged with health care fraud, aggravated identity theft, money laundering and obstruction, prosecutor said USA in Rhode Island by Zachary Cunha. said at a press conference.

Mee Ok Bryuning, 62, of Warwick, a former supervisory adviser to the company, was charged with health care fraud, Kunya said. She is said to have hired and trained consultants on how to fraudulently bill insurance companies.

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The company, which has two offices in Rhode Island and more than a dozen in Massachusetts, was also charged.

Brier’s lawyer was sent an email asking for comment. Brüning’s defense lawyer was not listed in the court documents.

It is alleged that “under the guise of running rehab clinics that allegedly provided much-needed medical and therapeutic services to men and women in Rhode Island and Massachusetts who needed help with addiction, these defendants were actually defrauding their patients by providing them with little or no therapy and support at all, while still billing Medicare and other insurers as if they were doing it,” Cunha said.

Owner of Recovery Connection Centers of America, Inc. from Providence, Rhode Island, was arrested and charged with health care fraud.

They billed public and private insurance companies for 45-minute treatments, he said, which in reality were often 15 minutes or less. Sometimes they billed insurance companies for more sessions than hours in a day.

According to Cunya, Bruening was even called the “five-minute queen” for the short duration of her therapy sessions.

About 1,500 patients were affected in total, authorities said.

Brier, who is not a doctor, used the names of real doctors to use their license numbers without their knowledge or permission to write prescriptions for some patients, authorities said.

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Brier also allegedly lied on his Medicare application by failing to report a 2013 federal tax evasion conviction that resulted in a 27-month prison sentence.

Joseph R. Bonavolonta, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston office, called the case “one of the most brazen and egregious examples of healthcare fraud the FBI has seen here in Rhode Island in recent history.”

The FBI seized Brier’s home, worth nearly $2 million, two late-model cars, and the company’s headquarters in Providence. According to Bonavolont, Brier tried to hide and launder the proceeds of his scheme through investment accounts, buying luxury cars, paying off student loans, renovating a home and an oceanfront resort in Panama.

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Federal authorities are working with the Rhode Island Department of Mental Health, Disability and Hospitals and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to ensure continuity of care for RCCA patients.