FORT LAUDERDALE — Dr. Mark Agresti, who claimed he devoted his 30-year profession to serving to folks battling dependancy, on Thursday was convicted of 12 expenses of well being care fraud for utilizing his shoppers to perpetuate a $31.3 million insurance coverage rip-off.
The 59-year-old psychiatrist confirmed no emotion, however turned briefly and checked out his spouse, as U.S. District Choose Rodolfo Ruiz introduced the jury’s resolution that got here after roughly 2 ½ hours of deliberations following a three-week trial.
Agresti, who was as soon as director of psychiatry on the former Columbia Hospital in West Palm Seaside, faces a attainable decades-long jail sentence after the jury agreed he ordered 1000’s of medically pointless checks when he served as medical director of Good Choices Sober Residing.
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Sentencing scheduled for April 21
The Palm Seaside resident is the newest of dozens of people that had been prosecuted in reference to Palm Seaside County’s once-thriving illicit sober dwelling business.
Whereas federal prosecutors initially requested that Agresti be taken to jail to await sentencing on April 21, they relented after they realized his father is in a hospice and close to dying. Ruiz stated he did not imagine Agresti was a flight danger and there was no have to jail him.
Agresti’s protection workforce, who tried to influence jurors that Agresti was duped by unscrupulous sober dwelling proprietor Kenneth Bailynson, stated they had been disenchanted by the decision.
“We felt that Dr. Agresti was not responsible,” stated Richard Lubin, who represented the doctor together with attorneys Greg Rosenfeld and Amy Morse. “We’ll collect to determine what our subsequent step can be.”
Throughout closing arguments on Thursday, Rosenfeld argued that whereas Agresti made errors, he didn’t commit any crimes.
“The federal government did a unbelievable job of proving that Dr. Agresti was negligent, perhaps even grossly negligent, however that’s not the problem on this case,” he stated.
Federal prosecutors countered that Agresti knew precisely what Bailynson was doing, knew it was unlawful and helped him anyway.
“They’re asking you to imagine the neatest individual within the room, a physician, was tricked,” stated Assistant U.S. Lawyer James Hayes.
The sober dwelling that Bailynson operated out of a rundown condominium advanced on Georgia Avenue in West Palm Seaside wasn’t making an attempt to assist folks beat their addictions, Hayes stated.
“It was used as a farm to reap urine samples and earn a living off of it,” he stated.
The profitable operation relied on Agresti and his prescription pad. Insurance coverage corporations wouldn’t pay for costly urine checks until Agresti ordered them.
And Agresti ordered 1000’s of them in the course of the 23 months he served as medical director of the operation that was shut down in September 2014 after an FBI raid.
Residents had been examined at the very least thrice per week. The checks Agresti ordered weren’t easy, cheap drug screens that will instantly present whether or not a resident had relapsed.
As an alternative, Agresti ordered costly laboratory checks and requested that every urine pattern be screened for as many as 80 various kinds of medicine.
Whereas insurers would pay about $300 for the short checks, they might write checks for a median of $1,500 for the extra complete screens, Bailynson testified.
As a result of a lab needed to course of the advanced checks, the outcomes weren’t accessible for so long as 5 days. But Agresti continued to order further checks earlier than the outcomes of earlier ones had been accessible.
“It is mindless to order a second check once you haven’t seen the outcomes of the primary check, after which order a 3rd check once you haven’t seen the outcomes of both of the opposite two,” Hayes stated.
Physician stated checks deterred drug use. Prosecutors say he by no means learn outcomes.
Whereas testifying in his personal protection this week, Agresti stated the checks had been to function a deterrent. Realizing they might be examined repeatedly, residents had been much less more likely to relapse, he stated.
He acknowledged that he didn’t evaluation the check outcomes. That was left to teenage staffers at Good Choices. Any resident who examined constructive was requested to go away.
Once more, Hayes stated, Agresti’s clarification for ordering the checks after which not reviewing the outcomes defies logic.
“It’s unreasonable and is mindless that a physician would order the checks and by no means evaluation the outcomes,” he stated.
Rosenfeld insisted that the federal government’s case was constructed on the testimony of people that had a lot to achieve by testifying towards Agresti.
Bailynson, who pleaded responsible to conspiracy to commit well being care fraud, readily admitted to the jury that he was testifying towards Agresti in hopes of decreasing a promised 10-year jail sentence.
Eric Snyder, proprietor of the previous Actual Life Restoration, testified towards Agresti, who additionally served a medical director of the Delray Seaside therapy middle. Snyder was handed a 10-year jail time period in 2019 after pleading responsible to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He has been allowed to stay free so he can testify towards others.
“To imagine Dr. Agresti dedicated fraud, you need to imagine a bunch of people that had been convicted of fraud,” Rosenfeld informed the jury.
Additional, he argued that the federal government cherry-picked affected person recordsdata and lab checks to solid Agresti within the worst mild attainable. Additionally, he stated, Agresti had no monetary motive to order extra checks.
Not like Bailynson, who pocketed $15 million from the scheme, Agresti was paid a month-to-month wage. Whereas it elevated because the variety of residents dwelling at Good Choices swelled from 25 to just about 250, it wasn’t based mostly on the variety of checks he ordered, Rosenfeld stated.
Assistant U.S. Lawyer Amanda Perwin stated Agresti earned almost $900,000 whereas working at Good Choices and a few 10 different sober houses and therapy facilities in Palm Seaside County.
Nevertheless, Rosenfeld stated, these numbers had been inflated. His internet earnings from his work as a medical director on the varied places was $428,000, he stated. Of that, about $59,000 got here from Good Choices.
Rosenfeld insisted that Agresti was a compassionate psychiatrist who acquired caught up in a chaotic scenario that spiraled uncontrolled.
“He informed you and he was sincere that he was in over his head,” Rosenfeld stated. “He informed you, ‘I’m an fool. I didn’t imply to. I needed to assist folks.’ ”
Such admissions, notably for a physician, are exhausting to make, he stated.
However, Hayes countered, Agresti may have sounded the alarm as soon as he realized Bailynson was utilizing individuals who had been battling dependancy to get wealthy.
“The tragedy of this case is Dr. Agresti,” Hayes stated. “He had so much to supply and he didn’t do it.”
jmusgrave@pbpost.com