The United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut announced that Shawn Tyson, 55, of Bloomfield, was sentenced to 12 months and one day of imprisonment, and three years of supervised release, for healthcare fraud. According to court documents and statements made in court, Tyson was a Licensed Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselor with an office located in Hartford. From November 2019 to April 2023, Tyson and Thelma “Wendy” Epps, who had been suspended as a provider by the Connecticut Medicaid program in 2018, defrauded Medicaid by submitting fraudulent claims for psychotherapy counseling sessions that were not provided by Tyson or Epps. In addition, they agreed to submit claims to Medicaid under Tyson’s unique Medicaid provider number for services purportedly provided by Epps that falsely represented that Tyson had personally provided the services to Medicaid patients.
In order to conceal the fraud scheme, in October and November 2022, Tyson provided fraudulent patient records in response to an audit of his claims performed by the Medicaid program. Tyson was ordered to pay restitution of $670,960.72, portions of which are owed jointly and severally by Epps and another licensed counselor involved in the scheme, Dennis Tomczak. Released on a $15,000 bond, Tyson is required to report to prison on April 10.