Asbury Park Press (New Jersey)

November 29, 2010 Monday

Jackson psychiatrist gets prison

BYLINE: By, ERIK LARSEN

SECTION: NEWS

LENGTH: 406 words

STAFF WRITER
A psychiatrist from Jackson was sentenced Monday to three years in state prison for his role in a scheme to fraudulently overbill Medicaid and Medicare for almost $50,000, according to state Attorney General Paula T. Dow and Criminal Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor.
Dr. Arnold Jacques, 61, the former medical director of the now-defunct Chambers Mental Health Clinic LLC, a mental-health counseling center in Trenton, also was ordered to pay $49,941 in restitution by Superior Court Judge Edward M. Neafsey seated in Mercer County, according to Acting Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Riza Dagl.
On Sept. 8, Jacques pleaded guilty to second-degree conspiracy, second-degree health care claims fraud, and third-degree Medicaid fraud. The charges originally were contained in a state grand jury indictment returned in 2007, according to a prepared statement released Monday.
Jacques admitted that between January 2004 and November 2005, he conspired with the two co-owners of Chambers Mental Health Clinic to overbill the Medicaid and Medicare programs, according to the statement.
Jacques and his co-defendants, Pedro Acosta, 65, of Queens and Osvaldo Morales Sr., 62, of the Bronx, made claims to be billed under Jacques’ Medicaid and Medicare provider numbers even though the psychiatrist did not personally provide the counseling services billed, according to the statement.
Moreover, the defendants billed Medicaid and Medicare for longer counseling sessions than those that were provided, billed for family counseling in addition to individual sessions for the same patient on the same day, and billed for counseling services that were not rendered at all, the statement said.
Medicaid pays a higher rate for longer counseling sessions and for counseling services provided by a specialist as opposed to therapists with lesser credentials.
Acosta and Morales previously pleaded guilty for their roles in the fraud. Acosta pleaded guilty to second-degree health care claims fraud and Morales pleaded guilty to third-degree Medicaid fraud. Both of those defendants await sentencing, the statement said.
Detectives Joseph Jaruszewski and Kevin Gannon and former Deputy Attorney General Sherry L. Wilson investigated. Deputy Attorney General Erik Daab represented the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor at the sentencing Monday, according to the statement.