Sisters indicted as bogus psychologists

Two Massachusetts sisters faced arraignment in Middlesex Superior Court earlier this week, charged with using false psychologist credentials and fraudulently billing federal, state, and local agencies more than $580,000, according to the attorney general’s office. Neither is a licensed psychologist. Nita Guzman and Nina Tischer, 49-year-old twins, are accused of assuming the identities of psychologists, a mental health counselor, and a social worker to provide services in the Lowell, Massachusetts, area. They then allegedly billed various agencies for those services.

Guzman and Tischer allegedly used a licensed psychologist’s credentials to perform $60,000 worth of psychological evaluations of special education students in the Lawrence public school system. They were also accused of evaluating people applying for mental health disability benefits at UMass Medical School. Tischer allegedly used the names and licenses of a mental health counselor and a social worker to bill UMass $30,000.

The sisters allegedly used the identities and license information of two psychologists to bill another $490,000 of psychological services to the state’s MassHealth insurance program and to Medicare.

Source: Boston.com