A Brentwood, Tennessee, optometrist and church leader pleaded guilty to a $7 million health care fraud scheme and received a 42-month prison sentence, according to a Sept. 14 press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee.
: Optometrist Dr. Helen Boerman, former leader of the Remnant Fellowship in Brentwood, Tenn.
Helen Boerman, 48, admitted to using her optometry practice to submit false government reimbursement claims totaling about $11 million, ultimately receiving approximately $6.9 million. Court records show that at the height of the scheme in 2022, Boerman put $5.2 million in stolen funds toward building a home worth about $7 million and transferred $4 million to a retirement account.
Boerman used her practice, Brentwood Eye Care, to submit false claims through Medicare, Tennessee’s Medicaid agency TennCare and the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP). From early 2020 to October 2024, Boerman created fake claims for office visits that never took place and created duplicate bills for improperly split single-use products, according to court documents.
Rob McGuire of the U.S. Attorney’s Office told MinistryWatch that audits uncovered Boerman’s illegal activity. “She was the number one overprescriber for this type of procedure,” said McGuire, referring to amniotic membrane grafts (AMG), a treatment for chronic dry eye. “That’s the kind of analytic that sticks out.”
The sentencing memorandum notes that in “2020, 2021, and 2022, [Boerman] was the top optometrist in the country for Medicare reimbursement of AMG.” McGuire said he was unable to comment on possible future charges connected to the scheme but confirmed that, at present, no other practice staff members have been charged. The practice is still operating under a new name, Brentwood Optometric Physicians. According to court documents, both Boerman and her husband are still associated with the practice, and her husband draws a “substantial” monthly income from it.
Boerman will serve a 42-month sentence and pay restitution of $6.97 million. Boerman and her attorney requested a lighter sentence of 12 months and one day, describing her as a “steadfast pillar within her local community” and citing her roles as a mother of three minor children and primary breadwinner.
In Boerman’s sentencing memo, her attorney argues that while “Dr. Boerman unequivocally accepts full responsibility for the offense,” her fraudulent claims began with attempts to help patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. The memo states that the duplicate visit claims began when Boerman doubled up AMG procedures to reduce office visits and limit COVID-19 exposure. Boerman’s attorney says duplicate billing for medical supplies began when Boerman divided graft materials intended for a single eye into smaller sizes because patients reported discomfort after larger grafts.
Dr. Boerman, second from left, participates in a Weigh Down Workshop episode entitled “How to Have Healthy Babies” with Gwen Shamblin, left, in 2019.
The prosecution dismissed those claims and described the fraud as “a scheme by [Boerman] to steal money to fund a lavish lifestyle, at the expense of American taxpayers.” The prosecution requested a 48-month sentence as part of the plea deal, and the crime carries a maximum sentence of 60 months.
Remnant Fellowship Involvement
Boerman attended Remnant Fellowship church, started in 1999 by the late Weigh Down weight-loss ministry founder Gwen Shamblin. A since-removed leadership profile on the Remnant Fellowship website states that Boerman joined Remnant in 2002, married her husband — whom she met through Remnant — at the Brentwood congregation in 2005, and appeared in interviews for the Weigh Down ministry and on Shamblin’s “You Can Overcome” show.
The bio does not specify the nature of Boerman’s and her husband’s roles in leadership at the church. The defense sentencing memo states that the Boermans are “heavily involved in community service through their local church” and “provide support and guidance to other families in their community facing a variety of struggles, including addiction, marital trouble, financial difficulties, and medical issues.” MinistryWatch reached out to Remnant Fellowship for comment and will update this story with any response received.
Remnant Fellowship has been involved in several controversies. The group denies orthodox views on the Trinity, calling Trinitarian theology a “man-made tradition” that “goes against the holy scriptures.” Shamblin’s heterodox views on the Trinity led to the cancellation of a book project in 2000 and caused many churches to stop offering her Weigh Down seminars.
An Atlanta couple who attended a Remnant Fellowship congregation were convicted of the 2003 murder of their 8-year-old son. Police raided the church during the investigation but “never established a solid link between the church and the boy’s death.” Shamblin publicly supported the couple and claimed the boy’s death was an accident. Remnant maintains the couple’s innocence and denies negative claims surrounding the teaching and culture of the church.
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WeighDown and Remnant Influence
Remnant’s site claims that the group has grown to include congregations in more than 170 cities globally. Services are livestreamed from the Brentwood flagship campus twice a week. Shamblin, the group’s founder, was killed in a private plane crash in 2021, along with her husband and five other Remnant leaders. Shamblin’s daughter, Elizabeth Kaufmann, leads the church today, along with “a leadership team consisting of over 120 Shepherds, Deacons, Ministry Leaders, and Ministry Assistants.”
The Weigh Down movement gained cultural traction in the 1990s, with numerous churches offering seminars, but its influence today does not appear to be widespread.
The ministry’s official YouTube channel, started in 2008, has only about 6,790 subscribers and a little more than 1 million views total. Remnant Fellowship’s account has even less reach. In the aftermath of Shamblin’s death, the controversial church was the subject of a critical 2021 docuseries (“The Way Down: God, Greed, and the Cult of Gwen Shamblin,” HBO Max) and a 2023 Lifetime movie (“Gwen Shamblin: Starving for Salvation”).
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