Man Found Guilty Of False Health Claims

Thomas G. Westall, 50, Mountain Home, has been sent to jail for six months and ordered to pay $29,000 in restitution for making false health care claims.

U.S. Attorney Betty Richardson said Westall was found guilty after a jury trial on the government’s 43 counts of mail fraud and submitting false statements to a government agency.

Westall also will be on supervised probation for four years after his release and must serve six months home detention.

Between 1988-95, Westall owned and operated New Life Counseling Center, Boise. Richardson said Westall submitted false claims that produced $250,000 from three insurance companies, First Health, an insurance company funded by the Department of Defense and Blue Cross of Idaho.

In imposing sentence, Chief U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge admonished Westall for not accepting responsibility for the offense, noting, “It was a tragedy that the defendant asked good people to believe that he is innocent.”