PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — A man who “embezzled and cheated his way through life” defrauding Medicare, Medicaid and other insurers out of millions while running a recovery center chain has been sentenced in U.S. District Court. Michael Brier, 62, of Newton, Mass., will serve eight years in federal prison after admitting to failing to provide substance abuse patients with required counseling sessions while still billing Medicare, Medicaid and other health insurers for those sessions. His clinic, Recovery Connection Centers of America, routinely billed Rhode Island and Massachusetts patients for 45-minute counseling sessions while only providing patients with 5-10 minute sessions. One employee kept a bell that they would ring to ensure the fast pace of these sessions, according to the office of United States Attorney Zachary A. Cunha. Brier’s sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release and he is ordered to pay $3.5 million in restitution. “Today’s sentence holds this career criminal accountable for capitalizing on the opioid crisis by defrauding taxpayer-funded federal health care programs out of millions of dollars and leaving the patients who came to his clinics deprived of treatment,” said Jodi Cohen, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Boston Division.   Categories: Massachusetts, News, Rhode Island