A former southeastern Connecticut counselor, who pleaded guilty last year to one count of health care fraud and one count of violating the federal anti-kickback statute, was sentenced Tuesday to probation.

According to a news release from the U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut, U.S. District Judge Stefan R. Underhill in Bridgeport sentenced Jeffrey Slocum, 56, a former East Lyme resident who worked as a psychotherapist at 300 State St. in New London, to three years of probation. Slocum, who now lives in Johnstown, Pa., must serve the first year under home confinement.

In 2020, Medicaid had told Slocum that it would audit some claims for services and requested patient records for about 100 services he had billed to Medicaid, according to the release.

The following year, “Medicaid notified Slocum that the audit had determined that he had received over $225,000 in payments from Medicaid for services that he had not documented,“ according to the release. Medicaid said it would start making deductions, in installments, from future Medicaid payments in order to collect the overpayment.

According to the release, after hearing this, Slocum began submitting claims to Medicaid for psychotherapy services that he never provided.

He also paid cash, money orders, and Walmart and VISA gift cards to “his Medicaid patients in order to induce them to receive psychotherapy services from them,” the release stated.

Underhill ordered Slocum to pay $695,048 in restitution to Medicaid, the release said.