John H. Durham, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, Phillip Coyne, Special Agent in Charge for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, and David Sundberg, Special Agent in Charge of the New Haven Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, today announced that CORTNEY DUNLAP, 36, of Avon, was arrested yesterday on a federal criminal complaint charging him with health care fraud and making false statements relating to health care matters.
As alleged in court documents and statements in court, Dunlap, a licensed professional counselor, engaged in a scheme to defraud the Connecticut Medicaid program by submitting fraudulent claims for psychotherapy sessions that were never provided. Specifically, Dunlap billed Medicaid for having provided more than 24 hours of psychotherapy services on 67 different dates between January 1 and April 4, 2020. He also billed Medicaid for having provided 60-minute psychotherapy sessions to each of 44 patients every day from February 13 to March 19, 2020. In addition, he billed Medicaid for providing psychotherapy services while he was on a cruise to the Bahamas in July 2019.
It is also alleged that Dunlap billed Medicaid for fraudulent psychotherapy services for employees of Inspirational Care, Inc., a company Dunlap owns that has provided in-home and community-based services to individuals with disabilities. Through Inspirational Care and a subsidiary, KEYS Program, Inc., Dunlap has operated group homes in five locations in Connecticut, including residences for women and children who may be victims of domestic abuse or violence. Dunlap required residents of the group homes to provide copies of Medicaid identification cards for themselves and their children when they signed housing agreements. He then fraudulently billed Medicaid for psychotherapy services that were never provided to residents of two group homes in Hartford, and their children.
It is further alleged that, in February 2020, Dunlap was employed as a guidance counselor at New Haven Adult and Continuing Education, a program administered by New Haven Public Schools. Dunlap accessed a computer database to obtain students’ dates of birth and Social Security numbers, then used that information to identify students who were insured by Medicaid. He then billed Medicaid for psychotherapy services that were never provided to those students.
The complaint alleges that the Connecticut Medicaid program suspended Dunlap as a Medicaid provider on approximately April 28, 2020, and, on May 7, 2020, federal law enforcement agents executed a court-authorized search of Dunlap’s offices located on Brainard Road in Hartford. Dunlap subsequently hired a licensed clinical social worker and used that person’s Medicaid provider number to bill for psychotherapy services that were not provided.
Dunlap appeared yesterday via video conference before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert A. Richardson and was released on a $100,000 bond.
U.S. Attorney Durham stressed that a complaint is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. Charges are only allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
This investigation is being conducted by the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with the assistance of the Office of the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Office of the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Education, the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the Connecticut Chief State’s Attorney’s Office, the Connecticut Attorney General’s Office and the Connecticut Department of Social Services.
U.S. Attorney Durham thanked the U.S. Marshals Service and Avon Police Department for their assistance in arresting Dunlap.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David J. Sheldon with the assistance of Auditor Susan N. Spiegel.
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| Component | USAO - Connecticut; |
| OIG | Department of Health and Human Services OIG |