Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois paid more than $4.8 million to a suburban Chicago counseling center for psychotherapy that federal prosecutors say never took place. A grand jury has indicted six people on health care fraud charges. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois says the group submitted at least $19 million in claims over 15 years, and an indictment is not evidence of guilt.
Six defendants and a counseling center in the south suburbs
The business at the center of the case is All Types Counseling Services, which had offices in Chicago’s southwest suburbs. Prosecutors say Brenda Copeland, 64, of Country Club Hills, operated it. Samuel Carlson, 69, of the same town, was its office manager.
Four others are charged alongside them: Herbert “Randy” Foster, 59, of Flossmoor; Joseph Iraci, 51, of New Lenox; Anthony Gessert, 42, of Oak Lawn; and Henry Saldarriaga-Ochoa, 37, of Berwyn. The release does not describe what role each of those four played. All six face counts of health care fraud and conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
How prosecutors say the payments worked
The indictment describes a scheme built on people who were not really patients. Prosecutors say the alleged conduct ran from 2010 through 2025. Copeland and Carlson worked with four purported patients, who handed over their health insurance information. Copeland and Carlson then allegedly billed Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois for psychotherapy sessions that never happened…