Former Connecticut mental health counselor sentenced for health care fraud

NEW LONDON, Conn. (WTNH) — A former Southeastern Connecticut counselor was sentenced to one year of house arrest followed by two years of probation for health care fraud.

Jeffrey Slocum, 56, was a licensed professional counselor (LPC) with an office in New London from 2017 to 2022. In 2020, the Connecticut Medicaid program notified him that they were going to audit certain claims for services Slocum had billed to them between March 2018 and February 2020.

The audit determined that he had received over $225,000 in payments from Medicaid for services that he had not documented, which Slocum would have to pay back. As a result of the audit, Slocum began submitting fraudulent claims to Medicaid for psychotherapy services that he never provided.

Additionally, he paid kickbacks to his Medicaid patients in the form of cash payments, money orders, Walmart and VISA gift cards to induce them to receive services from him.

Slocum was ordered to pay a restitution of $695,048 to Medicaid.

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