BAY CITY, Mich. (AP) — Federal prosecutors say a judge has sentenced a Flint-area podiatrist to four years, seven months in prison for his role in a $1.6 million fraudulent medical billing scheme.

U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade says Richard A. Behnan of Fenton was sentenced Monday after pleading guilty in November 2011 to conspiracy to commit health care fraud.

McQuade says U.S. District Judge Thomas Ludington also ordered the 56-year-old foot doctor to pay $1.43 million in restitution to Medicare and $197,000 in restitution to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

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The government says Behnan provided services at senior centers and assisted living facilities in Bay City, Flint, Detroit, and Lansing. It says he billed for covered procedures while actually trimming and polishing nails — services insurance doesn’t cover.

A Louisville insurance broker has been charged with insurance fraud after a state investigator said he submitted fraudulent life insurance applications to increase his commission payments.

Justin Andrew Bauer, 30, of Coleman-Bauer Insurance Group in Louisville, was arrested at his office at 806 Stonecreek Parkway about 1 p.m. Friday, an arrest citation said.

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The insurance fraud charge stems from 2009, when Bauer was an insurance broker with Bankers Life and Casualty Insurance Agency, a Jefferson County court summons said.

Justin A. Bauer is listed as one of the initial organizers and a principle member of Coleman-Bauer Insurance Group LLC, which was established in February 2009, Kentucky Secretary of State incorporation filings show.

A man who identified himself as Justin Bauer answered the phone at Coleman-Bauer and confirmed the address of the business listed on court records was correct, but said he was not the person who had been charged. He said the date of birth, home address and home telephone number listed on the records were not his.

The man also said he was not a broker for Bankers Life and Casualty in 2009.

Court records list two home addresses for Bauer, one in the 100 block of Fairlawn Drive and the other in the 3100 block of Randolph Avenue.

The Justin Bauer listed in court records is accused of filing 25 to 30 fraudulent life insurance applications using the names of actual clients while a broker for Bankers Life and Casualty “with the intent of increasing the amount of his commission.”

Special Investigator Melvin Nicholson of the state Insurance Fraud Investigation Division said that when Bauer was interviewed, he said he had been submitting the fraudulent applications for more than a year, a criminal complaint said.

Bauer “stated that he needed the money,” it said.

The total amount Bauer received in the insurance scam was $6,780.38, the complaint said. He was charged with one count of fraudulent insurance acts of more than $500.

YORK – Susan Schulz, 51, of rural York has pleaded not guilty to felony insurance fraud and misdemeanor false reporting.

The York resident appeared in York County District Court this past week for arraignment, along with her attorney, York County Public Defender Nancy Waldron.
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York County Sheriff Dale Radcliff says the cases stem from two separate incidents.

“The first – the insurance fraud case – stems from the defendant calling our office saying her house had been burglarized,” the sheriff explained. “She said she left to take her son to school and when she returned home, she found that someone had broken into her house. She said she was missing a computer, medications, jewelry, cash and other items.”

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He said Schulz attempted to file a claim with an insurance company to recoup the value of the stolen property.

“The problem was that there was never a crime,” the sheriff said.

He didn’t provide the details that led to the discovery it was an alleged false claim. Radcliff only stated that the investigative process revealed she allegedly made up the story.

“She even gave us a license plate number of a male driver who had been seen in the area,” the sheriff said, “but there was no crime. It was all a lie in an attempt to get money from the insurance company.”

In a separate situation, Sheriff Radcliff said his department received a call from York General Hospital.

“Hospital personnel reported that Schulz was there, saying she’d been in a car accident – an accident that hadn’t been reported to us. She said she had back pain and needed medication,” Sheriff Radcliff said. “But it was discovered that she wasn’t hurt, she just needed drugs. She said the accident happened while she was delivering newspapers for the Omaha World Herald – but we confirmed that she was not a carrier for the World Herald and there was no indication of an accident with the vehicle or signs of such at the place where she said it had allegedly occurred. We also have evidence that she’s been to a number of other hospitals with the same false reporting of accidents that never happened, just to get medications.”

A trial has been set for May 14.

If convicted, Schulz could be facing a possible maximum sentence of 21 years in prison and/or $26,000 in fines.