Cortney Dunlap, Medicaid Fraud, Connecticut 2021

Cortney Dunlap, a 36-year-old licensed professional counselor from Burlington, has pleaded guilty to health care fraud related to a wide-ranging scheme that defrauded the Connecticut Medicaid Program of more than $1.3 million.

According to court documents and statements in court, from 2014 to 2020, Dunlap managed group homes in Hartford, Bristol, Cromwell, and Waterbury, including residences for women and children who were victims of domestic abuse. He engaged in a scheme to defraud the Connecticut Medicaid Program by submitting claims for psychotherapy services that were purportedly provided to Medicaid clients.

The vast majority of the claims were for occasions and dates of service when no psychotherapy services of any kind had been provided to the Medicaid clients identified in the claims. On a limited number of occasions, some of the services were rendered by unlicensed individuals who were not qualified or licensed to provide psychotherapy.

Dunlap required tenants of the group homes operated or managed by Inspirational Care and KEYS Program to provide copies of their Medicaid member cards as a condition of residing at the group homes. He then used these Medicaid member numbers to bill Medicaid for psychotherapy services that were not provided to the tenants or their children.

Dunlap also accessed a database containing personal identifying information of students and former students enrolled at New Haven Adult and Continuing Education, many of whom he did not have any professional relationship with and had never met. He used the information to determine whether the students were insured by Medicaid and, if so, identified the students’ Medicaid member identification numbers.

Dunlap was arrested on a criminal complaint on October 14, 2020. Judge Kari A. Dooley scheduled sentencing for August 27, 2021, at which time Dunlap faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years.

The scheme resulted in Medicaid paying Dunlap approximately $1,136,500 for psychotherapy services that were not provided. This includes approximately $543,117 for services provided to tenants and their children at the group homes and approximately $593,383 for services provided to students and former students at New Haven Adult and Continuing Education.

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