New York dentist pleads guilty to $600,000 insurance scheme
A Syosset, N.Y., dentist will serve a minimum of two years in prison after pleading guilty in federal court to submitting bogus medical claims for Port Authority police officers, costing MetLife $600,000.
Barry Cohan, 51, will have to forfeit the money he received from MetLife as part of plea arrangement reached June 10 in a Brooklyn court, according to Newsday. A federal grand jury indicted the dentist in 2007.
Prosecutors say Cohan fraudulently billed the Port Authority dental plan for more than the actual cost of procedures and also billed for some procedures he never performed.
When the plan stopped making payments, the report said, Cohan began submitting charges under the name of another dentist.
Cohan’s attorney said prosecutors in the case let nearly 30 Port Authority officers escape charges who had their names used in the overbilling and never made a co-payment for their dental work, according to Newsday.
A spokesman for the Port Authority inspector general told the newspaper that an investigation is “active” involving dental claims for some of its officers.


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