The wife of therapist pretended to be her and may have counseled hundreds of unknowing patients, state health officials said. The therapist denied any wrongdoing and surrendered her licenses, authorities said.
A woman pretending to be her therapist wife may have counseled hundreds of patients who didn't know they were speaking to an imposter, according to state health records.
Peggy Randolph was a licensed clinical social worker in Tennessee and Florida who allegedly helped defraud mental health patients, according to health officials in those states. Randolph was employed by the medical platform Brightside Health, authorities.
Randolph denied those allegations and surrendered her licenses, saying she didn't know her wife, Tammy Heath-Randolph, had been counseling her patients during online sessions, according to health officials.
Heath-Randolph died in 2023.
After her death, a Tennessee woman complained to Brightside that she discovered via social media that her online counseling appointments were actually with her therapist's wife, health officials said.
Brightside Health fired Randolph after receiving that report in 2023, the company said. An internal investigation also showed Randolph's wife had impersonated her in Florida as well, the company told CBS News.
“"We take our patient experience seriously and hold ourselves to a high ethical code of conduct," spokeswoman Hannah Changi said in a statement to the network. "We're extremely disappointed that a single provider was willing to violate the trust that Brightside and most importantly, her patients, had placed in her,” she said.
The company has refunded all patients who were affected, the statement said. The company's internal investigation determined that Randolph had given her log-in credentials to Heath-Randolph, authorities said.
The investigation was closed after Randolph agreed to surrender her licenses in both states, the statement said.
Inside Edition Digital has reached out for comment to Peggy Randolph.
The allegations recently became public after Tennessee and Florida health officials released some details about their investigations, according to local reports. Both state health departments closed their investigations after Randolph gave up her licenses to practice in those states.
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