Clinic Owner Charged With Medicaid Theft

Attorney General Spitzer today announced that a Capital area alcohol and substance clinic, and its owner have been charged with stealing nearly $200,000 from the taxpayer funded Medicaid and Medicare systems.

Lifestart Clinic Inc., and its owner, Lloyd Sokolow, 49, which operates clinics in Schenectady, Saratoga Springs, and Clifton Park allegedly stole the money by fraudulently billing Medicaid and Medicare for services.

The indictment also alleges that Sokolow falsely billed Medicare for unauthorized psychotherapeutic treatment, group services, and abbreviated sessions under a Medicare provider number of an area psychologist.

"My Administration is committed to aggressively prosecuting cases of Medicaid fraud," Spitzer said. "Schemes and scams involving the theft of public funds are crimes against the taxpayers of New York State. These crimes will not be tolerated."

The alleged thefts occured over a three year period beginning in February 1994 and continuing through November of 1997.

Sokolow was arraigned today in Albany County Court before Judge Larry Rosen. Sokolow and Lifestart Clinic Inc. are each charged with two counts of Grand Larceny in the Second Degree, one count of Grand Larceny in the Third Degree, six counts of Offering a False Instrument for Filing in the First Degree, and one count of Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree.

The case is being handled for the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit by Special Assistant Attorney General John P. Miller.

The charges against Sokolow and Lifestart Clinic Inc. are accusations and the defendants are presumed innocent.