RI woman sentenced for her role as ‘five minute queen’ in ‘brazen’ health care fraud

• Mi Ok Song Bruining, 64, of Warwick, was sentenced for her role in the ‘brazen’ fraud committed by the Recovery Connections Centers of America.
• She will serve three months of home confinement.
• The center’s director is serving 98 months in prison.

PROVIDENCE – A Warwick social worker labeled “the five-minute queen” for the speed with which she shuttled through clients will serve three months’ on home confinement for her role in a scheme to defraud the government and insurers while robbing patients of crucial opioid treatment.

U.S. District Court Judge Mary McElroy on Wednesday sentenced Mi Ok Song Bruining, 64, to three years of supervised release, with the first three months on home confinement, for conspiring with her former boss to commit health care fraud out of a Providence opioid treatment center.

McElroy also ordered Bruining to perform 100 hours of community service, and pay $100,000 in restitution.

“People rely on their mental health professionals … for guidance,” McElroy said while acknowledging that Michael Brier CEO of Recovery Connections Centers of America, was the ringleader.

Bruining, who will lose her license, expressed regret in court.

“I profoundly apologize,” she said.

How the scheme went down

Brier ran Recovery Connections Centers of America, with offices in Rhode Island and Massachusetts from headquarters on Wickenden Street, with Bruining acting as the supervisor.

Under the scheme, the office billed insurance companies for 45-minute counseling sessions per patient when each actually received only a few minutes of attention. 

Bruining, who previously pleaded guilty, was known as the “five-minute queen” for her ability to shrink counseling sessions to mere minutes. Authorities accused her of training staff on the tactics, equipping one with a bell to ensure that patients moved briskly along. 

Upon their arrest in 2023,  authorities called the scheme “one of the most brazen and egregious examples of health care fraud the FBI has seen here in Rhode Island in recent history.”   

McElroy sentenced Brier, of Newton, Massachusetts, to 98 months in prison for defrauding Medicare while depriving patients struggling with substance-use disorders of needed treatment. He must pay $3.5 million in restitution.