A prominent Connecticut child psychologist was sentenced Friday to two years and three months in prison for stealing $1.67 million in the state's largest Medicaid fraud in memory.
Dr. Michael B. Pines, who practices in Glastonbury and lives in Avon, is accused of collecting tens of thousands of false claims for psychotherapy services and overbilling Medicaid over nearly seven years.
Federal prosecutors said Pines spent about $100,000 on jewelry. Travel to St. Maarten, Dublin, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Prague, Athens, Santorini, Cancun, Montreal, Ottawa, Cape Town, Zimbabwe and Bangkok. and about $160,000 in pocket money and mortgage payments for his adult son in Florida.
Pines, who specializes in “attachment disorders” in children and teens, said in a federal court filing that he now understands why he “clearly violated his own high standards and the law.” He said he consulted his colleagues for advice. ”
The bottom line is that Pines, 75, suffered from irrational fears and a “deep sense of fear,” not to mention “high levels of anxiety” that were “enhanced by cognitive distortions of all kinds.”
“The government believes that greed fueled this opportunistic crime despite the absence of addiction or serious mental health conditions,” prosecutors wrote in their filing.
Prosecutors argued that Pine submitted claims for non-existent treatments “nearly every day, every week, year-end and year-end.” During the period investigated, investigators say Pine defrauded Medicaid recipients by an average of $4,635 per week.
An analysis of Medicaid billing records revealed that for many years, Pine regularly billed Medicaid for more than 12 hours of services every weekday, excluding major holidays. At the same time, records show he was treating paying clients with private insurance.
In a 1994 interview with The New York Times, Pines talked about his field of expertise, separation disorders, in which people are unable to bond with their parents due to parental abuse, neglect, or childhood illness. He explained that as a result, they are unable to show love and concern to others. .
At the time, he was president of the Dallas-based Association for Child Attachment Therapy and Training, the newspaper said.
Pines has been a licensed psychologist in Connecticut for more than 45 years. During the period of the fraud, prosecutors said he was the sole owner and operator of Dr. Michael B. Pines' psychology clinic in Glastonbury. He had been enrolled in the state's Medicaid program since 2014.
He has primarily worked with children and adolescents with a variety of problems, including anxiety, depression, mood disorders, ADHD, autism spectrum disorders, behavioral disorders, and especially issues related to trauma, loss, and attachment. Ta. ”
As part of her sentence, U.S. District Judge Sarala Nagara ordered Pine to repay the stolen money. He has already returned more than $500,000 and turned over numerous pieces of jewelry to the government.