Woman Gets 35 Years In Jail For Medicare Fraud

MIAMI (CBSMiami.com) – A Miami woman will spend the next 35 years in prison for taking part in a more than $200 million Medicare fraud scam that targeted mental health centers.

Prosecutors said Marianella Valera manipulated records in order to keep patients at a facility longer. That, in turn, would allow for higher Medicare bills.

Valera and Lawrence Duran owned the American Therapeutic Corporation, which was the nation's largest community mental health care chain.

The company paid owners of assisted living facilities and halfway houses to bring patients in for therapy sessions that were never held. In some cases, authorities said elderly patients were left in rooms for hours and weren't cognizant of where they were or what was happening.

Duran was sentenced to 50 years in prison Friday -- the longest sentence under the Medicare strike force.

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