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Hartford County resident Cortney Dunlap, age 37, of Burlington, was sentenced on Friday, March 11, to 57 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release, according to Leonard Boyle, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut.
Dunlap was also ordered to pay restitution to Medicaid of $1,313,322, Boyle said.
He pleaded guilty to one count of health care fraud on June 4, the US Attorney's Office reported.
From 2014 to 2020, Dunlap worked at offices on Brainard Road in Hartford, and he owned Inspirational Care and KEYS Program Inc. where he managed group homes in Hartford, Bristol Cromwell, and Waterbury, Boyle reported.
From August of 2018 through October 2020, he was involved in a scheme to defraud the state Medicaid program, submitting claims for psychotherapy services for Medicaid clients when the services were not provided, the US Attorney's Office reported.
On a limited number of occasions, services were rendered by people who weren't licensed to provide psychotherapy, according to the report.
The Medicaid program suspended Dunlap as a provider in April of 2020, and federal law enforcement agents searched his Hartford offices in May of that year, Boyle said.
Boyle said Dunlap required tenants of the group homes to give copies of Medicaid member cards as a condition of residing in the homes.
He used the member numbers of about 65 tenants or their children to bill Medicaid for fraudulent services, receiving about $543,117 from Medicaid, the US Attorney's Office reported.
New Haven Public Schools hired Dunlap as a guidance counselor at the New Haven Adult and Continuing Education Center in February of 2019, according to the announcement.
In February of 2020, he accessed a database that had personal information of students and former students at the center, and he used the information to identify more Medicaid identification numbers, Boyle said.
Dunlap then billed Medicaid for fraudulent psychotherapy services using the member numbers of about 135 students, receiving about $593,383 from Medicaid, Boyle said.
The US Attorney's Office reported that Dunlap also fraudulently billed Medicaid for services he said were provided to employees at Inspirational Care and for services purportedly provided to members of his family.
Dunlap was arrested on Oct. 14, 2020, the report said.
According to the announcement, the state department of social services and law enforcement suspended the Medicaid payments to Dunlap and recovered $337,777.63 that Dunlap was set to receive, and the US Attorney’s Office’s Civil Division seized and forfeited $412,415.20 from his bank accounts.
Dunlap also made a restitution payment of $20,000, leaving his restitution obligation at $543,129.17, Boyle reported.
Dunlap is required to report to prison on Monday, April 25, the US Attorney's Office reported.
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