IRVINE : UCI Psychiatrist Faces Theft, Fraud Counts

A UC Irvine psychiatry professor is facing a charge of grand theft for allegedly fraudulently billing Medi-Cal for $50,000 over two years, prosecutors said Friday.

Kenneth Sokolski, an assistant professor of psychiatry at UCI, is also charged with two counts of submitting fraudulent claims to Medi-Cal.

Medi-Cal paid $98,752 for hourlong and half-hour psychotherapy sessions allegedly provided between July, 1991, and May, 1993, although Sokolski “generally spent less than 10 minutes with each patient,” according to court documents.

Sokolski, who lives in Irvine and is a psychiatrist at the VA Medical Center in Long Beach, turned himself in to authorities Thursday, Deputy Atty. Gen. David Haxton said. He was released on his own recognizance and will be arraigned June 21 at Los Angeles Municipal Court.

Richard Ross, Sokolski’s attorney, said his client used a billing system that is “common practice and accepted practice” among psychiatrists who deal with Medi-Cal. “I’d imagine there are a lot of people shaking in their boots right now” because of the prosecution, he said.

Sokolski would have received about $20,000 less by using the billing method advocated in the court documents filed by the attorney general’s office, Ross said.

The attorney general’s office “filed a case that is so ridiculous that in the past, it would have been treated with a phone call,” Ross said. “I’ve been practicing criminal law for 18 years and I have never seen such an ill-founded prosecution.

“I’m really looking forward to litigating this thing,” Ross said. “They’ve got to prove an intent to defraud, and they’ll never prove it.”