Deerfield Woman Sentenced To 6 Months For Yearslong Fraud Scheme

CHICAGO — A north suburban psychologist who admitted orchestrating eight-year-long insurance fraud scheme that netted her millions was sentenced last month to six months in federal prison — nearly 90 percent less time than the low end of the sentencing guidelines spelled out in her plea agreement, according to court records.

Pamela Antell, 67, of Deerfield, pleaded guilty in May to a single count of health care fraud. Antell, who also uses the last name Gruenhut and operated out of an office in Glenview, admitted devising and carrying out a scheme to defraud Aetna, Cigna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, United Healthcare and Medicare by submitting false claims totaling more than $2.5 million, as estimated by the government.

Antell submitted about 3,144 claims for services she provided on days she was not even in Illinois, according to her plea agreement. In addition to submitting fraudulent claims for visits that never occured, she submitted claims for a person who was never even her patient, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago.

While her lawyers alleged she lived frugally and carried out the fraud scheme out of a compulsive mental illness — even asserting she entered a "trance like fugue state" while doing billing records — prosecutors argued she was incapable of accepting that she stole the money for her own personal gain, according to pre-sentencing memoranda.

"Unlike many defendants who appear before this Court," according to the government's sentencing memo, "[Antell] was not desperate for money to put food on the table or a roof over her family's head. On the contrary, she was highly educated, had a profitable practice and enjoyed a high standard of living before she began her fraud scheme."

In 2016 and 2017, the final two years of her fraud, Antell took trips to St. Croix, Curacao, Japan, Las Vegas, Boston, Los Angeles, and six trips to New York and three to Atlanta. She also reported the need for a clothing budget of $1,000 per month, prosecutors noted.

Once her patients and their insurance companies got wind of her practices of submitting false billing paperwork, Antell threatened patients, prosecutors said, citing emails and recorded phone calls.

"[T]he record clearly portrays the very specific way that defendant reacted to those individuals who dared to question her about billing and other issues: She lashed out with threats, manipulation, and insults, using information she had learned over the course of treatment against them," said Assistant United States Attorney Heidi Manschreck in the government's sentencing memo.

In addition to threatening to falsely accuse a patient of being in on her fraud scheme, prosecutors said Antell sought to obstruct justice after she was changed. In the midst of plea negotiations, she asked a former patient she had submitted fake billing records for to lie to investigators if asked about her, asking him to say he had seen her far more frequently than he had, that he always paid in cash and that it would be "just a little fib," Manschreck said.

Antell faced a maximum of 10 years in prison. According to her plea agreement, her sentencing guidelines ranged from 46 to 57 months. Prosecutors asked for a sentence of 48 months imprisonment. Antell's attorneys asked for probation.

According to the sentencing memo filed on Antell's behalf by a trio of lawyers from the white-shoe firm Jones Day, her "long-term struggle with serious and debilitating mental illness is at the heart of her otherwise inexplicable offense," it said. She suffered from anxiety and depression and felt compelled by an "uncontrollable and irrational need" to provide more money for her adult children.

"She began committing fraud in order to soothe these symptoms of her mental illness and meet this urge to provide," it said. In addition to her mental illness, Antell suffers from diabetes, osteoarthritis, irritable bowel syndrome, high cholesterol and sleep apnea, according to her lawyers. Her attorneys emphasized Antell's lack of prior criminal history and noted she could never reoffend because she would never be allowed to operate a psychotherapy practice again.

U.S. District Judge Jorge Alonso sentenced Antell to just 13 percent of the low end of the advisory guidelines, which are intended to avoid vast disparities in sentencing. He also ordered that she pay more than $1.46 in restitution and pay a $100,000 fine.

Earlier: Glenview Psychologist Indicted On Medicare Fraud Charges

Read complete sentencing memoranda from defense attorneys and prosecutors: