[A] mental health counselor has been charged with committing Medicaid fraud after he was allegedly reimbursed for counseling services he never provided.
Donald Skekel, 67, of Putney, pleaded not guilty to 12 counts of welfare fraud on July 12.
An affidavit from Virginia Merriam, an investigator for the Vermont Attorney Generalโs Office, said Skekel billed Medicaid for more than 200 60-minute counseling sessions that never occurred between 2015 and 2016.
Investigators found Skekel was reimbursed a total of $119,000 from Medicaid between April 2015 and July 2017.
Skekel was falsely reimbursed at least $17,100 for counseling 12 current or former residents of Phoenix House New England, a sober house for men in Brattleboro, according to the affidavit in the case.
Skekel worked full time at Phoenix House for about a year and operated a private counseling business on the side before he was moved to a part-time position at Phoenix House for a few months and then fired in April 2016, according to the affidavit.
Phoenix House reported Skekel to the state after a client was denied services by his regular therapist due to a โduplication of services.โ The affidavit said the patientโs regular therapist wasnโt paid for three sessions in February 2016 because Medicaid had already paid Skekel for the patientโs counseling sessions.
Assistant Attorney General Linda Purdy said her office regularly investigates Medicaid fraud cases. (More than 200,000 Vermonters are enrolled in Medicaid, which has a budget of more than $1.2 billion.)
โSadly, we see it too often,โ Purdy said.
Phoenix House New England President Pete Mumma said in a phone interview that Skekel was employed as a life skills educator at the Phoenix House RISE program, where he was responsible for providing resumeฬ building and coaching services. He said Phoenix House didnโt offer clinical counseling services at the time โ the kind of services Skekel was billing for.
It was against Phoenix House policy for Skekel to bill Medicaid, Muma said.
Skekel didnโt have access to insurance information, Muma said, but he had enough interaction with Phoenix House clients to obtain Medicaid information.
Some patient files Skekel had included mathematical equations he jotted down to determine how much he would need to bill Medicaid to match the monthly income of about $2,300 at Phoenix House before he was fired, the affidavit said.
Mumma said he was โdisgustedโ by the situation.
โThe people who were most hurt by this were the clients who were starting to be denied services by their licensed clinicians,โ he said.
Skekel did not return calls seeking comment on the case.
His lawyer, Adam Hescock, said in an email: “I don’t have a lot to add beyond what’s in the affidavits filed with the court as I only handled arraignment. We may have more to say later on but I need to speak with my client first.” He did not respond to questions contained in a subsequent email.
Skekel is currently vice president of Southeastern Vermont Community Action, a board heโs served on since 2010. SEVCA serves close to 9,000 people in Windham and Windsor counties, providing heating assistance, clothing and furniture as well as access to health services and education.
Fellow SEVCA board members said they were surprised by the allegations against Skekel.
โI have the highest esteem and respect for him from the work that Iโve seen him do on the board,โ said SEVCA President Kathryn Poston.
Poston said Skekel has kept the board informed about the case.
โThe executive director and I need to speak with him and determine what we will be doing,โ Poston said. โThereโs nothing decided at this point.โ
Skekel still holds active counseling licenses from the Vermont Office of Professional Regulation. Heโs currently a licensed mental health counselor and a licensed alcohol and drug counselor.
Office of Professional Regulation Director Lauren Hibbert said privacy laws did not allow her to comment on whether charges had been filed against Skekel, which could allow the office to investigate and revoke his licenses.
A status conference in the case is scheduled in September. Skekel could face fines and 10 years in jail if found guilty. Itโs not clear whether he will also be forced to return the money.
This story has been updated to more precisely describe lawyer Adam Hescock’s response to a request for comment from the reporter.
