Tennessee psychologist Lorne Semrau sentenced to 18 months prison for fraud

April 13, 2011

On March 21, 2011, Tennessee psychologist Lorne Allan Semrau was sentenced in federal court to 18 months in prison. 

Semrau was convicted last June 17, 2010 of three counts of submitting false and fraudulent claims to the Tennessee and Mississippi Medicaid and Medicare programs. 

Semrau is the former owner, president and CEO of businesses called Superior Life Care Services and Foundation Life Care Services. 

The 2007 indictment against him states that he contacted with nursing homes in Mississippi and Tennessee to provide medication and mental health services and then contracted with psychiatrists to perform the services.  He implemented a billing scheme to defraud Medicaid, Medicare and others by submitting claims for $3 million in services that were not provided and claims he knew were false. 

Terms of his sentence include restitution to Medicaid and Medicare of $254,435.

Source: “Psychologist convicted of false billings,” The Jackson Sun, June 29, 2010 and “United States District Court Sentences Psychologist for False Billings to Medicare/Medicaid,” press release of the U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Memphis, Tennessee, March 21, 2011.