BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A Pennsylvania resident who previously lived in East Lyme was sentenced on Tuesday in Bridgeport for health care fraud and kickback offenses, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut.
Jeffrey Slocum, 56, of Johnstown, Pa., was a Licensed Professional Counselor at an office located at 300 State St. in New London from 2017 to 2022. On Aug. 16, 2023, he pleaded guilty to one count of health care fraud and one count of violating the federal anti-kickback statute, according to prosecutors.
On Tuesday, Slocum was sentenced to three years of probation; he must spend the first 12 months in home confinement under electronic monitoring, prosecutors said.
According to statements made in court and court documents, in 2020, the Connecticut Medicaid program informed Slocum that Medicaid was going to audit certain claims for psychotherapy services he had billed to Medicaid between March 2018 and February 2020. Prosecutors said that as part of the audit, Medicaid requested patient records for around 100 individual psychotherapy services Slocum had billed to Medicaid.
Prosecutors said that in March 2021, Medicaid told Slocum the audit revealed he received more than $225,000 in payments from Medicaid for services that were undocumented and that it would begin to collect the overpayment by deducting the overpayment in installments from future payments Medicaid would made to Slocum.
When Slocum discovered the audit’s results and that he would have to pay back the money, he began submitting fraudulent claims to Medicaid for psychotherapy services he never provided, according to prosecutors.
“All of the fraudulent claims Slocum submitted to Medicaid represented that he had personally provided the nonexistent services,” the release from the U.S. Attorney said.
Prosecutors added that Slocum also engaged in a scheme to pay kickbacks to his Medicaid patients to persuade them to receive psychotherapy services from him. He paid these kickbacks to patients in the form of cash, money orders and Walmart and VISA gift cards, prosecutors said.
On Tuesday, a judge ordered Slocum to pay restitution of $695,048 to Medicaid, prosecutors said.
People who suspect health care fraud are recommended to call 1-800-HHS-TIPS to report it.
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Dalton Zbierski is a digital content producer and writer at FOX61 News. He can be reached at dzbierski@FOX61.com.
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