A federal judge sentenced a former Crown Point woman to seven years in prison Thursday after she admitted posing as a psychologist and bilking Medicaid and Medicare out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Christine L. Reese, a.k.a. Christine Lang, 63, pleaded guilty in April to Medicaid fraud and aggravated identity theft.
“She saw me as a valuable dollar sign,” one client wrote in a letter read during the 2.5-hour hearing.
In court filings, Reese “caused an intended loss of over $457,000 and actually received over $247,000,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Wolff wrote.
The damage was more profound, he later argued in court. She forged documents with real people’s licensing numbers while trying to get jobs. While posing as a psychologist, Reese allegedly wrote a letter of support for one client trying to get a gun and weighed in on another client’s custody battle.
She “defrauded vulnerable people out of mental health treatment,” he said.
He showed a picture from the Harvey Public Library in May 2023, where she was speaking as an apparent psychologist at a mental health forum.
Defense lawyers Jeffrey Urdangen and Bria Stephens argued Reese had a rough childhood and came under the influence of her second husband, Roy Reese Jr., who served time for murder in Cook County before they met.
Tearful, Christine said she was “so ashamed” and “only wanted to help (people).”
“You did real harm,” Judge Phillip Simon said.
She may have thought she was helping people, but more likely that was “delusional,” he said.
Christine Reese was charged Aug. 23, 2023, after an FBI raid on her Crown Point home produced evidence confirming she used others’ identities to obtain a job as a licensed clinical psychologist — she is not one — with Mid-America Counseling Services.
Once Mid-America Counseling fired her, she opened her own telehealth psychology practice, Sanctuary Counseling LLC, five days later, with Roy C. Reese Jr., who at the time was a boyfriend/business partner.
They married Oct. 4, 2021, according to court documents. There she passed herself off as a licensed clinical psychologist who treated patients, made recommendations to officials on patients’ behalf, and then proceeded to bill Medicaid and private insurers for services she was not legally authorized to provide.
A complaint filed in federal court by FBI Special Agent William Powell lays out what he described as a scheme to use another individual’s Indiana Professional Licensing Agency identification number to impersonate a licensed psychologist for the purpose of operating a psychology clinic she was not licensed to operate and allegedly seek reimbursement from Indiana Medicaid and other insurance providers for services Reese could not legally provide.
According to court records, state law requires psychologists to be licensed by the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency, which requires applicants to show they have a doctoral degree in psychology.
“Christine Reese has never been licensed as a psychologist by the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency,” the document reads.
According to the court records, in November 2021, Reese used fraudulent and stolen information to enroll Sanctuary Counseling as an Indiana Medicaid Provider. On the application, the complaint alleges she falsely identified herself in print and handwritten signature as “Dr.” Christine Reese. On a second form for Sanctuary Counseling, she used the name of a licensed psychologist, identified as M.O. in the court documents, and claimed that M.O. was a rendering provider for the clinic.
According to the complaint, that individual never worked for the clinic and denied signing the application bearing her name and said she never gave anyone permission to put her signature on the document. In another alleged misdeed, Reese submitted an IPLA identification number and falsely represented it was hers on a Medicaid enrollment form. The IPLA number belonged to a psychologist who never worked for Sanctuary Counseling.
Then, using the fraudulent information, Reese successfully was able to enroll Sanctuary Counseling as an Indiana Medicaid Provider. During a period beginning in November 2021 and ending in January 2023, Reese, through Sanctuary Counseling, submitted about 506 claims for reimbursement to Indiana Medicaid for approximately 18 individual Medicaid recipients.
Previously, she was sentenced to 50 months in Wisconsin for identity theft.
Post-Tribune archives contributed.
mcolias@post-trib.com
