Business Owner Charged with $28,000 Worth of Insurance Fraud

A Rockland woman who ran a physical therapy business in Brockton has been indicted in connection with a scheme to fraudulently collect more than $28,000 in insurance payments.

Olga O’Connor Rich, 41, is charged with 46 counts of motor vehicle insurance fraud, four counts of larceny over $250, and three counts of attempted larceny.

“We allege that the defendant submitted fraudulent bills to insurance companies to collect for treatment that was never provided,” Attorney General Martha Coakley said in a statement released Friday.

Rich was the sole owner of South Coastal Physical Therapy in Brockton from 2001 through 2009. According to authorities, she used her position at the business to submit fraudulent physical therapy bills to several automobile insurance carriers. These “supplemental bills” were allegedly sent months or years after the initial billings were sent to the insurers for purported treatment that was never rendered, prosecutors contend.

According to authorities, Rich continued to submit the supplemental bills to insurers even after her business closed in December 2009. Authorities allege that Rich continued to make calls to insurers seeking reimbursement as recently as August 2011. Prosecutors say Rich submitted fraudulent bills totaling nearly $60,000 to insurance companies and received payments of more than $28,000 between August 2007 and August 2011.

A statewide grand jury returned indictments against Rich on Thursday. Rich will be arraigned in Plymouth Superior Court on a later date.

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