Syosset dentist sentenced for bilking medical plan

A federal judge Friday sentenced a dentist from Syosset to 3 years and 1 day in prison for overcharging the Port Authority's medical plan - including billing $5,000 for a filling for which he normally charged only $100.

U.S. District Judge Frederic Block, in federal court in Brooklyn, called dentist Barry Cohan's actions "absolutely reprehensible" but did not go along with prosecutors who wanted to make Cohan a poster boy for health-care fraud and asked that he be sentenced to more than 5 years in prison.

Before the judge pronounced the sentence, Cohan, 53, in a rambling speech that lasted more than 10 minutes, expressed remorse for his actions, compared himself with Moses and sobbed as he begged Block for leniency so he could spend time with his family and ill parents.

While he admitted his actions were wrong, Cohan - who had practices in Long Beach and in Brooklyn - said some were not out of the ordinary.

"I don't believe I existed in a vacuum," he said.

Block also sentenced Cohan to 3 years of supervised release. The judge agreed to defer a final decision on restitution until it is determined exactly where the money will go.

As Cohan left the courthouse in Cadman Plaza with his tearful wife, his attorney, Ronald Russo, said his client was "looking to get on with his life. This chapter is closed."

Cohan, who was arrested in 2006, pleaded guilty in June 2009 to insurance fraud and identity theft for bilking the Port Authority dental plan out of $600,000 more than the cost of procedures, making claims for work he didn't do and submitting charges under another dentist's name when the plan stopped paying him.

He will remain free on $250,000 bail until July 9, when he is to surrender to begin serving his sentence.

Prosecutor Daniel Brownell had argued that Cohan should be sentenced to 61 to 70 months for a history of fraudulent behavior that spanned more than two decades."This was not an isolated incident or an isolated group of incidents," Brownell said. "This was disgracefully a long-standing pattern of fraud."

Cohan had faced a mandatory minimum sentence of 2 years. The sentence that Block gave him was recommended by the probation department.

The judge said that while Cohan's actions were reprehensible, he also found the dentist to be genuinely remorseful and was impressed by the personal letters written on his behalf.

Block said he took into consideration Cohan's "profound physical situation." Cohan has a history of serious gastrointestinal problems, and his sentencing had been postponed because he needed surgery and several months to recover.