California Dental Office Manager Veronica Rivas Gets 45-day Jail Term for Insurance Fraud

Superior Court Judge Shelyna Brown also gave Veronica Rivas, 39, of Fremont, three years of probation and ordered her to pay $3,223.50 in restitution, according to a District Attorney’s Office news release. Rivas had been convicted of faking an insurance claim and taking the money.

“It may be tempting to try and cash out ‘unused’ insurance benefits,” deputy district attorney Denise Raabe said in a written statement. “But it is a crime to submit false insurance claims for procedures which were never performed. Insurance fraud impacts everyone by causing insurance rates to go up.”
According to prosecutors, Rivas submitted fraudulent insurance claims in early 2009 to a dental insurance provider to cover orthodontic treatments for her husband and son, who never received them.
Rivas forged a dentist’s signature on the patient refund check that was payable to her husband, according to the district attorney’s office. But the dentist discovered the fraud and reported it to Palo Alto police.