CT Counselor Sentenced In $1.3 Million Medicaid Fraud Case: Feds

HARTFORD, CT — A former counselor who operated out of a Hartford office has been sentenced to nearly five years in prison for defrauding Medicaid programs of $1.3 million, according to a statement from prosecutors. Cortney Dunlap, 37, of Burlington, will also serve three years of supervised release.

According to prosecutors, Dunlap, 36, was a counselor with offices located on Brainard Road in Hartford from 2014 to 2020. Dunlap also owned two entities, Inspirational Care and KEYS Program Inc., through which he managed group homes in Hartford, Bristol, Cromwell and Waterbury, including residences for women and children who were victims of domestic abuse.

According to prosecutors, from August 2018 through October 2020, Dunlap defrauded Medicaid by submitting claims for psychotherapy services that were supposed to be provided to Medicaid clients. In the vast majority of claims, no psychotherapy services had been provided .

On a few occasions, some of the services were rendered by unlicensed individuals who were not qualified or licensed to provide psychotherapy, according to prosecutors.

The Connecticut Medicaid program suspended Dunlap as a provider April 28, 2020. Then federal law enforcement agents executed a court-authorized search of Dunlap's Hartford offices May 7, 2020.

Dunlap then billed Medicaid for psychotherapy services through Inspirational Care for services he did not provide using the provider number of a licensed clinical social worker. The social worker did not provide the services and was not aware that her provider number was being used to bill for the nonexistent services.

Dunlap required tenants of the group homes operated or managed by Inspirational Care and KEYS program to provide copies of the Medicaid member cards for the tenants and their children as a condition of the tenants residing at the group homes, according to prosecutors.

Dunlap then used these Medicaid member numbers to bill Medicaid for psychotherapy services that were not provided to the tenants or their children. Dunlap used the Medicaid member numbers of approximately 65 tenants or their children to bill Medicaid for fraudulent services, and Medicaid paid Dunlap $543,117 for psychotherapy services that were not provided to these people.

In February 2019, the New Haven Public Schools hired Dunlap as a guidance counselor at the New Haven Adult and Continuing Education Center. Shortly after, Dunlap accessed a database containing personal identifying information of students and former students enrolled at New Haven Adult and Continuing Education, many of whom Dunlap did not have any professional relationship with and had never met.

Dunlap used the information to determine whether the students were insured by Medicaid and, if so, identified the students' Medicaid member identification numbers. He then billed Medicaid for fraudulent psychotherapy services that were never provided to the students, according to prosecutors.

Dunlap used the personal identifying information and Medicaid member numbers of approximately 135 New Haven Adult and Continuing Education students to bill Medicaid for fraudulent services, and was paid a total of $593,383 by Medicaid for these claims.

Dunlap was arrested Oct. 14, 2020.

Dunlap has agreed to pay restitution to Medicaid in the amount of $1,313,322.

He pleaded guilty June 4 to one count of health care fraud. Dunlap, who is released on bond, is required to report to prison April 25.