Medicare Fraud

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Medicare fraud
Case summary
The New Haven Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced that a licensed professional counselor named Cortney Dunlap of Avon was arrested on suspicion of defrauding the Medicaid system and making false statements regarding health care issues.
Dunlap allegedly submitted multiple fraudulent claims to the Connecticut Medicaid program for psychotherapy sessions that he did not provide. This fraud targeted random clients, his own employees, total strangers whose Medicaid numbers he fraudulently obtained and vulnerable families staying in group homes he used to run. The fraud was so brazen, he at some point claimed to have provided a one-hour psychotherapy session to 44 individual clients within a 24-hour span, for almost 2 months straight. Dunlap allegedly committed most of these crimes between July 2019 when he made refund claims at a time when he was on holiday in the Bahamas and May 2020 when the Connecticut Medicaid program informed the FBI of the scheme and investigations commenced against him.
A multi-agency investigation of the allegations took place for almost a month before its conclusion. After his arrest Dunlap was formally charged in court with the magistrate releasing him on a $100,000 bond after he took a plea.
How to prevent similar cases
To prevent Medicare fraud there a number of approaches that individuals can use. First, it is essential that individuals protect their Medicare number just as they would their credit card or ATM card. This minimizes the number of fraud avenues that they are exposed to because cr...