Woman Gets Probation for Fake Cancer Claims — And Bilking Insurance Company Out of Nearly $100K

Deborah Brown received nine years of probation and must repay nearly $100,000 in false cancer treatment claims. (Image source: Canon-McMillan Patch)

A Pennsylvania woman has been sentenced to nine years of probation and ordered to repay nearly $100,000 in insurance money she netted in false cancer treatments for her and her husband.

Deborah Brown, 52, was sentenced Tuesday after pleading guilty in August to submitting fraudulent and altered documents and bills to AFLAC worth about $94,000 between August 2006 and May 2008, according to the Observer-Reporter of Washington, Pa.

In 2007, Brown was diagnosed with lipoma — a noncancerous disease of the fatty tissue — but she submitted 29 phony claims instead for treatments for liposarcoma, which is cancer of the fatty tissue.

Her husband really did have prostate cancer, but the attorney general‘s office said he didn’t require any of the additional treatment she billed insurance for after he underwent surgery in November 2006.

The judge said he would consider terminating Brown’s remaining probation once she makes full restitution, the newspaper reported.

Before her sentence was handed down, Brown told the judge she was addicted to painkillers, but had come to realize that what she did was wrong after going through withdrawal in jail. She said she is “deeply remorseful” for her actions, according to the Observer-Reporter.

Her husband is currently undergoing psychological counseling and said he is anxious for his wife to do the same.