MIAMI – Federal prosecutors say a Miami psychotherapist previously convicted as part of a $70 million Medicare fraud scheme was seeing Medicaid patients when he wasn’t supposed to ― and even used therapy sessions to have a patient help him draft a presidential pardon application.
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According to an indictment filed on Tuesday, the case against Erik X. Alonso, 54, is being prosecuted in Concord, New Hampshire federal court, as the allegations stem from alleged telehealth services he provided to patients in the Granite State.
As part of his plea agreement from the 2015 conviction, prosecutors said Alonso wasn’t supposed to participate in any federal health programs, including Medicare and Medicaid. A federal criminal complaint states that Florida pulled his clinical social worker license in 2017.
Nevertheless, they said he began working for a New Hampshire clinic in 2022 and began seeing patients, including those covered under the NH Medicaid program.
The indictment identifies five Medicaid patients he saw via telehealth.
Authorities said “during purported psychotherapy telehealth sessions” in 2023, Alonso “requested (a patient’s) help” regarding his “efforts to obtain licensure in other New England states and his desire to draft and submit an application for a presidential pardon.”
President Joe Biden was in office at the time. Alonso does not show up in any Biden-era pardon records.
Alonso’s ability to practice in New Hampshire as a “Candidate for Mental Health Licensure” was suspended on an emergency basis in 2024.
Authorities said Alonso “profited” more than $111,000 in ill-gotten Medicaid funds.
He now faces eight new counts of health care fraud.
Read the indictment: