WOMAN BILKS BLUE CROSS WITH PHONY CLAIMS OF RAPE AND CANCER
Cervical cancer was clawing its way through Sara Ylen,
leaving her six months to live. It was triggered when a stranger raped her in a
parking lot. The assault gave her a sexually transmitted disease that caused
the metastasizing cancer.
A heart rending story; only none of it was true. For years,
the Port Huron, Mich.-area woman used the remarkable fairy tale and forged
medical documents to bilk her insurer out of payments for un-needed hospice
care. She was finally tripped up when a friend spotted one of the X-rays Ylen
had used online.
Last January, Ylen pleaded no contest to insurance fraud and
received a one-year sentence. That will run concurrently with another five-year
sentence she received for falsely accusing two men of rape. Ylen also owes
about $122,000 to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, mostly for the hospice
care. A 2012 event at a local-area church raised $10,800 for her bills, but the
church has not asked for repayment. That was just a fraction of the money
donated to Ylen by sympathetic friends and neighbors over the years.