Ipswich woman sent to jail on fraud charges

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February 2, 2008

By Mike Stucka The Salem News Sat Feb 02, 2008, 06:29 AM EST

BOSTON — An Ipswich woman was sentenced yesterday to a year in federal prison and ordered to pay or forfeit almost $128,000.

Dale A. Theberge, 44, of 40 Turnpike Road was sentenced in U.S. District Court yesterday, three months after she pleaded guilty to fraudulently billing Medicare and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts for physical therapy treatments she wasn't licensed to perform, or allowed to charge for.

Theberge could have faced 10 years in federal prison based on the charges.

For nine weeks in 2003, Thebarge submitted fake bills to Medicare and Blue Cross. Theberge is not a licensed physical therapist and didn't have a physical therapist working for her. Knowing she couldn't charge for the services unless they were done by a licensed physical therapist, Theberge filed the claims as if a former employee had done the work.

According to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston, Theberge will have to reimburse $51,853.88 to Medicare and $12,045.83 to Blue Cross, as well as forfeit $63,899.

A statement on the Web site of the U.S. Health and Human Services' Office of the Inspector General said Theberge and Aquatic Therapy of New England agreed in September to pay $398,357.49 after allegedly filing the false claims and claiming they'd given individual physical therapy instead of group therapy.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office did not return several calls last night from a reporter seeking more information.

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