Former New London therapist pleads guilty to defrauding Medicaid out of $695K

Aug. 17—Over a four-day period In the summer of 2021, former New London psychotherapist Jeffrey Slocum gave a patient $400 in cash and two $50 Walmart gift cards to convince him to continue therapy sessions.

Although the patient met with Slocum just five times, Slocum billed Medicaid for 51 therapy sessions.

This is one example of the fraud and kickbacks by Slocum that federal prosecutors have detailed in court documents as part of a plea agreement with the former East Lyme resident.

The 55-year-old Slocum, who now lives Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport to one count each of health care fraud and violating the federal anti-kickback statute. In all, he admitted to defrauding the Connecticut Medicaid program out of $695,048.

While each count faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, the sentencing guidelines outlined in his plea agreement call for 30 to 37 months in prison, and a fine of $10,000 to $100,000. Slocum also has agreed to pay full restitution to Medicaid. He is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 8. The plea agreement states that Slocum has accepted personal responsibility for the crimes.

According to court documents and statements made in court, from 2017 to 2022 Slocum worked as a licensed professional counselor with an office at 300 State St. in New London.

Slocum's problems began in 2021 when Medicaid began to audit him for payments he received between March 2018 and February 2020. The audit found Slocum had received overpayments from Medicaid totaling $225,081 and that he did not have records of many of the services he had billed to Medicaid.

Medicaid told him it would recoup the money by deducting the overpayments in 24 installments from future Medicaid payments to him over the next 12 months.

That's when Slocum began a scheme to bill Medicaid for hundred of thousands of dollars in services he did not provide to patients. Once the 24 recoupment installments began kicked in, prosecutors said Slocum increased the amount of fraudulent billing.

In addition, Slocum admitted he began to pay kickbacks to Medicaid patients so they would obtain therapy services from him. These included cash, money orders, and gift cards from Walmart and Visa. While Slocum would typically meet with these kickback patients on fewer than 10 occasions, he would bill Medicaid for dozens of additional psychotherapy services.

As part of his plea, Slocum admitted that from March 1, 2020, to Feb. 24, 2022, he submitted fraudulent claims to Medicaid totaling $695,048. In all, he billed Medicaid for $920,129 in services he did not provide.

This investigation was conducted by the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the FBI, with the assistance of the Connecticut Department of Social Services. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David J. Sheldon and Auditor Susan Spiegel.

Anyone who suspect health care fraud is encouraged to report it by calling 1-800-HHS-TIPS.