Woman posing as her therapist wife counseled patients online, investigations found | CNN

CNN
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In February 2023, a person made a disturbing discovery on social media: the woman they had been seeing in online therapy sessions was not actually a therapist.

Instead, the woman, identified in public records by her initials “TR,” had posed as his wife, Peggy Randolph, then a licensed clinical social worker, according to a Florida Department of Health investigative report.

Randolph, who provided services to clients in Tennessee and Florida for his employer Brightside Health, helped his wife conduct online therapy sessions using his credentials while Randolph saw other patients in person, the report and a settlement agreement between Randolph and the state of Tennessee detailed.

But Randolph’s wife was not licensed or trained to provide any type of counseling services,” according to a settlement agreement between Randolph and the state of Tennessee.

The couple’s “coordinated effort” to defraud patients came to light when Randolph was taking bereavement leave after his wife died, the documents state.

CNN tracked down a online obituary for Tammy Heath-Randolph, 58, which lists Peggy Randolph as the deceased’s wife. Heath-Randolph (TR) died on February 11, 2023, just weeks before a patient complained to Brightside.

Randolph “denies knowing” that Heath-Randolph had been conducting therapy sessions using her Brightside Health Therapist Portal login credentials, the settlement agreement states.

However, Brightside’s internal investigation revealed that Randolph had provided those credentials to his wife, who “was seeing all of his patients and had been doing so for a long time,” according to the Florida report.

Randolph also received compensation for the sessions his wife conducted, the settlement agreement states.

When shown a photograph showing Heath-Randolph with one of his clients, he acknowledged it was his wife.

Brightside Health took “swift and decisive action” once it learned of the breach, according to a statement provided to CNN.

“We are extremely disappointed that a single provider was willing to violate the trust that Brightside, and more importantly, its patients, had placed in it,” the statement said.

Brightside Health said affected patients were fully reimbursed. The company also revoked Randolph’s access to its software systems immediately after being notified of the incident and terminated his contract, it said.

Randolph worked for the company from January 2021 to February 2023, according to the agreement, which says he was assigned to “provide therapy sessions to hundreds of clients.” It’s unclear how many patients his wife saw during that period.

In a Statement sent by emailBrightside spokeswoman Hannah Changi told KFF Health News that Brightside could not say how many patients were treated by Randolph’s wife “due to the nature of the incident and ongoing legal proceedings.”

Randolph voluntarily surrendered his license in both Florida and Tennessee and in May was ordered by the state of Tennessee to pay a $1,000 civil penalty within 12 months.

CNN has reached out to Randolph for comment.