HOUSTON -- A Missouri City occupational therapist has been sentenced for defrauding Medicare and Medicaid, KPRC Local 2 reported Wednesday.

Albert C. Albert, 56, will spend 15 years in prison for billing Medicare and Medicaid for services he never rendered. He pleaded guilty to a first-degree felony charge of theft by a governmental contractor in May.

State investigators said Albert's clinics, Skillcare Rehabilitation Services and Nelbat Rehabilitation Services, received fraudulent reimbursements from Medicare and Medicaid totaling more than $170,000 between February 1999 and February 2004.

Albert billed Medicare and Medicaid almost $55,000 for services dated after the deaths of 34 patients.