A Standish man was sentenced Tuesday to a year and a day in prison and ordered to pay nearly $90,000 in restitution for health care fraud.
Paulo D. Braga, 66, pleaded guilty to the charge in November. He was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Portland.
Officials say Braga was a licensed clinical professional counselor from 2010 to 2013 with offices in Portland and Windham. They say he hired former mental health and substance abuse clients to create progress notes for his meetings with other clients, which he was required to submit to receive payments from MaineCare, a program funded by the state and federal governments.
The former clients were told to use their imagination in creating the progress notes and to bill based on his calendar of appointments, whether a client showed up or not. Officials said he also told the former clients to submit progress notes for sessions based on the maximum number of sessions allowed by MaineCare.
As a result, federal prosecutors say, Braga billed MaineCare using false information and sometimes for sessions with patients that never happened.
The restitution ordered amounts to $89,445.
The case was investigated by the federal Department of Health and Human Services and the health-care crimes unit of the Maine Attorney General’s Office.
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