He was the former owner of Community Counseling and Treatment Services, Inc.
Paul Vernier, the former owner of Community Counseling and Treatment Services, Inc. (CCTS), was sentenced to 18 months in prison and fined $10,000 Thursday by Judge Lawrence County’s Court of Common Pleas. Christen Finley. He had previously pleaded guilty to two counts of fourth-degree Medicaid fraud on Feb. 5.
In March 2019, Vernier was charged with three counts of third-degree Medicaid fraud, 12 counts of money laundering, 17 counts of third-degree drug trafficking, one count of charge of first degree aggravated theft and one count of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.
All but two of those charges were dropped when Vernier agreed to plead guilty to the two charges of Medicaid fraud, which the state alleged he had deceptively received $3.9 million in payments from the department. of Ohio from Medicaid by making false or misleading statements to obtain reimbursement from the Medicaid program.
Attorney Christopher Kinsler of the Ohio Attorney General’s Office said they sent plainclothes police posing as Medicaid recipients in need of drug counseling and the police saw that group counseling sessions had 20 to 50 people and a single counselor. Under Medicaid rules, group counseling sessions were limited to 12 patients per counselor. Officers also reported that people were signing in and not attending the meeting. Sessions were often chaotic and shorter than what Medicaid was then billing for.
Kinsler said the security video was captured from CCTS and it appeared doctors were seeing patients for four minutes and billing Medicaid for 30 minutes.
“CCTS was all about the money,” Kinsler said. “It is the case in a nutshell.”
Vernier had a substance abuse problem three decades ago before getting clean and staying clean and becoming a licensed chemical addiction counselor in Ohio and Kentucky. He continued his work as an addiction counselor in Kentucky until recently.
Defense attorney Matthew Wisecup said ‘Paul really cares about him’ and it was always about treating patients to get off drugs despite the state giving the impression that the case “was a question of money”. He said Vernier’s past addiction issues made him an effective counselor and advocate, and when he opened CCTS, he was at the forefront of the fight against the opioid epidemic.
He also pointed out that Vernier had had a monitor on him since 2019 and had not breached any of the court’s conditions regarding his temporary release on bail.
Wisecup asked the court to sentence Vernier to probation rather than jail time, as the likelihood of Vernier committing this type of crime was highly unlikely.
Vernier spoke to the judge before sentencing. He said he opened CCTS to help people and it grew very quickly in the first year and did not diminish. Vernier opened CCTS in December 2011 on State Route 93 and it was a non-profit addiction treatment center specializing in the treatment of opiate addiction. There were two clinics in Scioto County in addition to the one in Lawrence County. He said he was in the process of getting a bigger building in Coal Grove when the state raided his offices and home.
“It was never about money, it was about helping people,” he said.
He talked about how his clinic was licensed by the state to prescribe drugs to help people get off drugs and he chose Suboxone over another drug because it blocks opioid receptors and reduces drug cravings. He also talked about buying school supplies for all of his employees’ children and donating to local organizations and not calling the media to cover it.
“I feel like I helped save lives,” Vernier said. “Looking back, I can see where mistakes were made and I take responsibility as owner and CEO. I felt like I was waging an honorable and justified war on drugs.
He told the judge he had already contacted the Kentucky and Ohio agencies and waived his counseling license after agreeing to plead guilty so they ‘wouldn’t have to sue me’ .
“I’m a good man, I love and care about people and I try to help,” he told the court. “I’m just asking the court for probation so I can continue to help people. The state tries to make it look like money. I’m not that person.”
Judge Finley said she believed he was a good person, but the case was about Medicaid fraud and his task was about a sentence, not the quality of the person.
She then sentenced him to 18 months on each count with the sentences running concurrently, meaning he will serve 18 months in prison. She said she would consider judicial release when it comes up.
Vernier has also confiscated property, although that is currently tied to a civil lawsuit in federal court in Kentucky.
The judge denied Vernier time to put his affairs in order and he was immediately taken into custody.
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