Charges: Utah mental health facility billed insurance for services not rendered

The owner of a Taylorsville mental health clinic faces five felony charges accusing her of billing insurance companies for services never provided to clients.

The owner of a Taylorsville mental health clinic faces five felony charges accusing her of billing insurance companies for services never provided to clients. (Kristin Murphy, Deseret News)


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TAYLORSVILLE — The owner of a mental health clinic in Taylorsville faces criminal charges accusing her of billing insurance companies for services never provided to clients.

Mandalina Marie Markovina, also known as Mandalina McClure, 48, of Taylorsville, was charged Tuesday in 3rd District Court with four court counts of insurance fraud and engaging in a pattern of unlawful activity, second-degree felonies.

Markovina is the owner of Mind and Body Integration, 1972 W. 5400 South, and has been a licensed clinical mental health counselor since 2013, according to charging documents.

From January 2018 through March 2020, the company submitted more than $1.4 million in claims to SelectHealth, Aetna, Cigna, and Regence Blue Cross and Blue Shield and received more than $174,000 in payments from those insurance companies, charging documents state.

But in 2019, SelectHeatlh received a complaint from a member who claimed to only have gone to Mind and Body Integration twice, even though the insurance company was billed for 11 visits, the charges state. The Utah Insurance Fraud Division launched an investigation and said it found other health insurance companies "were similarly billed for services that were never rendered."

"During the IFD investigation, over three dozen individuals who received treatment at MBI were contacted. Most of these former patients confirmed that the number of visits MBI billed to their insurance carrier was significantly greater than the appointments they attended. Additionally, medical records from MBI did not support the number of dates of service billed to the various health insurance carriers," the charges allege.

The court documents list 13 people who allegedly had claims filed in their names to the four insurance companies for services never provided.

Prosecutors say the "precise amount overpaid by insurers is difficult to quantify," however, Mind and Body Integration received at least $100,000 from insurers for services not rendered since January of 2018, according to the charging documents.

KSL.com called Markovina for comment Wednesday, but she hung up the phone after the reporter identified himself.

Federal court records indicate that Markovina filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in March.

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Pat Reavy is a longtime police and courts reporter. He joined the KSL.com team in 2021, after many years of reporting at the Deseret News and KSL NewsRadio before that.

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