A West Hartford resident received a suspended sentence and probation in connection with submitting false claims, according to the Connecticut State Department of Criminal Justice.

By Ronni Newton

A West Hartford woman was sentenced Thursday in Hartford Superior Court after being convicted of health insurance fraud, the State of Connecticut Division of Criminal Justice said in a news release.

Lorena Soto-Bunker, 49, of West Hartford, pleaded “nolo contendere” to the felony charges, and was sentenced to a two-year prison term, which was suspended, as well as five years of conditional discharge which requires her not to serve as a provider in the Medicaid program.

Soto-Bunker, currently the owner of Where Healing Begins, was working for Collaborative Counseling Center, LLC from September 2018 to September 2019 when the fraud occurred, and at the time was not a licensed behavioral health therapist, the DCJ said, but reported that she performed counseling services.

Alicia Thompkins, owner and operator of Collaborative Counseling Center, LLC and co-defendant in the case, submitted Soto-Bunker’s billings to the Connecticut Medicaid Health Insurance Program as if she had conducted the sessions herself, the DCJ said. The Medicaid Fraud Control Unit investigation indicated that Soto-Bunker had not met with the clients as reported in the bills, and $19,785.75 was fraudulently billed to and paid by the Connecticut Medical Assistance Program.

“Soto-Bunker caused the submission of claims to the Department of Social Services which contained false, incomplete, deceptive or misleading information which constitutes the crime of Health Insurance Fraud. By being found guilty of a program-related felony, the defendant is also subject to mandatory exclusion as a health care provider to certain federally funded health programs pursuant to federal and state laws and regulations,” the DCJ stated.

Thompkins was also convicted of health insurance fraud for her role “in submitting the unlicensed, unsupervised, unqualified services purportedly performed,” the DCJ said, and paid $140,000 in restitution by order of a judge for submitting the billings of an unlicensed person, and for not rendering the services for which the bills were submitted.

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