Owner of Garfield Counseling Center Sentenced to 15 Months in Prison for Orchestrating Health Care Fraud Scheme

NEWARK, N.J. – The owner of a New Jersey counseling center was sentenced today to 15 months in prison for her role in a health care fraud scheme involving hundreds of false claims, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced.

Maria P. Cosentino, 61, of Garfield, New Jersey, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Katharine S. Hayden to an information charging her with participating in a health care fraud scheme. Judge Hayden imposed the sentence today in Newark federal court,

According to documents filed in the case and statements made in court:

Cosentino owned Bergen Alliance Counseling Services, which provided counseling services and mental health treatment to children, families, couples, and adults. She admitted that for years she submitted false claims to private health insurance plans for counseling sessions that she never provided. Cosentino falsely claimed that various individuals had received counseling at the center when in fact they had been out of the country, had ceased attending the practice, or had never visited the counseling center at all. The false claims caused insurance plans to issue reimbursement checks to the center even though the individuals had never received any treatment. Cosentino kept the illicit profits, which totaled more than $700,000.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Hayden sentenced Cosentino to three years of supervised release and ordered her to pay restitution of $708,038.

U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Nelson I. Delgado in Newark, with the investigation leading to the guilty plea.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney DeNae Thomas of the Health Care Fraud Unit in Newark.