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Philadelphia clinic owner convicted of Medicare fraud

Compliance Monitor, June 20, 2012

A federal jury in Philadelphia convicted Jo Benoit, 77, of King of Prussia, Pa., of 76 counts of healthcare fraud, aggravated identity theft, distribution of controlled substances, and distribution of controlled substances to minors. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced the conviction June 12.

Benoit founded Transition Phase III in 2008 and advertised it as a trauma-specific mental health clinic, for victims of trauma, children, and members of the military and their families. Benoit inaccurately portrayed herself as a psychiatrist. She forged prescriptions on actual psychiatrists’ used prescription pads to medicate patients she claimed to be treating.
 
Benoit also used the name of an actual psychiatrist to bill insurance companies for more than $500,000, as if the patients were seeing a psychiatrist.
 
Benoit faces in excess of 100 months in prison, a mandatory minimum sentence of three years, a fine of up to $48 million, mandatory restitution, and three years of supervised release.

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