Local News in Brief : Huntington Beach : Psychologist Admits Filing Fraudulent Claim

A psychologist has pleaded guilty to a single felony count of filing a fraudulent Medi-Cal claim and has repaid the state $10,000 for billings he allegedly falsified.

The psychologist, Robert Wayne Brown, 45, pleaded guilty before Superior Court Judge Phillip E. Cox on Monday and Cox set sentencing for Dec. 11.

Brown could be sentenced to a maximum of one year in jail and fined $5,000, according to Ronald Casino, an official with the California Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud.

Acting on information from the We Tip Inc. crime-reporting network, the Medi-Cal fraud bureau last June charged Brown with 12 counts of filing false Medi-Cal claims and one count of grand theft, alleging that he had stolen more than $10,000 from the state. Casino said Brown met with patients at two board and care homes, Casa Grande in Tustin and Leisure Towers Guest Home in Orange, for group therapy sessions but instead billed the state for more expensive individual therapy sessions.

Brown, who is still practicing psychology, declined comment Wednesday, but his attorney, Paul Meyer, explained that Brown was treating schizophrenics at the two board and care homes and, concerned that the patients should receive “consistent treatment,” saw them four times a month in a group, rather than in the maximum twice-a-month hourly individual sessions that Medi-Cal would pay for.