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[MM Curator Summary]: Monique Brotman was convicted of stealing $58k from Medicaid, but she says things are not as they seem and she plead down to avoid jail time. Amount you spent on this (if you pay taxes)- $58,747.57.
A suburban OB-GYN alleged to have fraudulently charged Illinois’ Medicaid program pleaded guilty Tuesday in Cook County Circuit Court, Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office said.
Dr. Monique Brotman, 52, of River Forest, billed Medicaid $58,747.57 for ultrasounds and other procedures that were not provided, alleged the attorney general’s office, which prosecuted the case. The alleged false charges occurred between December 2008 and February 2015, Raoul’s office wrote in a news release.
“Thousands of Illinois residents rely on Medicaid for their health care. Defrauding the people of Illinois by misusing needed Medicaid resources will not be tolerated,” Raoul wrote.
The OB-GYN was ordered to pay full restitution upfront and will be excluded from the Medicaid and Medicare programs for at least five years. She was also sentenced to five days of community service, the news release said.
Brotman told the Tribune she’s operated a private practice in the western suburbs since 2008, part of a decadeslong career.
“And I would like to do so again,” Brotman said. She has been told that her medical license will be automatically suspended for the term of her five-year probation, a temporary stoppage of her practice that she called “heartbreaking.”
“Things are not what they seem,” Brotman said, adding that she had doubts about some of the alleged fraudulent charges but decided to plead guilty to avoid facing potential jail time.
“I think that it was very heavy-handed, and I don’t think that the punishment mirrors the offense,” she said. “This is something that occurred almost a decade ago in a very dark time in my life, and that should be taken into account.”
Brotman’s office hasn’t accepted Medicare or Medicaid since the investigation into her office began in 2015, she said. She said she believes the pause should have been counted as time served.
The attorney general’s statement credited the Illinois State Police for investigating the fraud allegations and said Assistant Attorney General Rob Sparano handled the case.