BETHEL — A Bethel psychologist has been charged with Medicaid fraud.
Robert Vaillancourt, 76, pleaded not guilty to four felony counts for allegedly defrauding Vermont Medicaid of more than $600,000 in public health care funds at his arraignment in Windsor County Superior Court in Woodstock on Tuesday, the Vermont Attorney General’s Office said in a Wednesday news release.
Vaillancourt also failed to maintain patient records in compliance with his Medicaid Provider agreement and as required by both state and federal law, the AG’s office said.
The charges brought against Vaillancourt arose out of an investigation conducted by the AG’s Medicaid Fraud and Residential Abuse Unit and the Secretary of State’s Office of Professional Regulation. The investigation began “after a referral was received from the Department of Vermont Health Access due to concerns with Vaillancourt’s overall therapeutic and billing practices,” according to the news release.
The affidavit cites numerous instances in which Vaillancourt allegedly billed Vermont Medicaid for therapy sessions — often conducted over the phone — that inflated the length of time and frequency clients told investigators he had spent with them.
Vaillancourt “provided services of approximately 10 minutes or less, and in some cases billed Vermont Medicaid for services not provided at all,” the affidavit said. The alleged false representations resulted in “significantly higher payments than if he had documented the actual services rendered.”
The affidavit further noted that the Department of Vermont Health Access’ Special Investigations Unit “had reviewed Vaillancourt in 2022, finding a concern related to the
quality of medical records retained. The department reviewed Vaillancourt again in 2024, identifying that the same concerns had continued, resulting in the referral to (the AG’s Medicaid Fraud and Residential Abuse Unit) for further investigation.”
Messages seeking comment sent this week to publicly listed phone numbers and email addresses for Vaillancourt went unanswered. Court records indicate that he has submitted an application for a public defender.
Vaillancourt’s LinkedIn profile identifies him as a licensed psychotherapist whose private practice in Bethel is “an outpatient primary care clinic for Gifford Medical Center.”
Tayo Kirchhof, a spokesperson for Gifford, said that Vaillancourt “was never employed by Gifford or any of its affiliates” and “only rented office space in Gifford’s primary care clinic location in Bethel for his personal private practice.”
The hospital “does not have any access to, or knowledge of, who he saw as patients,” Kirchhof said via email on Wednesday.
Vaillancourt was board president of Hospice of the Upper Valley in the late 1980s, according to letters he wrote and published in the Valley News at the time. Hospice of the Upper Valley merged with Visiting Nurse and Hospice for Vermont and New Hampshire in 1995.
The affidavit prepared by Vermont’s Attorney General’s Office noted that more than 200,000 people in the state, including nearly 50% of all people under the age of 18, are enrolled in Medicaid. That is 31% of the state’s population.
The Vermont Medicaid budget is currently more than $2 billion, the affidavit said.
Vaillancourt was released on his own recognizance on the condition that he present himself to Vermont State Police for fingerprinting within seven days, the Attorney General’s Office said.