A Florida woman allegedly posed as an online therapist, counseling numerous patients over the phone for up to two years, according to state health department records. This scheme, involving her wife Peggy A. Randolph, a licensed social worker in Florida and Tennessee, was only uncovered after the impostor’s death.
The scheme
Peggy, who previously worked for Brightside Health, a national online therapy provider, facilitated this act. While Peggy met patients in person, her wife impersonated her during telehealth sessions. The Florida Department of Health investigation described the couple’s actions as a “coordinated effort” to defraud patients. The ruse came to light when a patient realized they had been speaking to the wrong person after the impostor’s death, as noted in a Tennessee Department of Health settlement agreement.
The impostor’s identity
The state records refer to the woman only as T.R., but her obituary reveals her full name: Tammy G. Heath-Randolph. The settlement agreement states, “[Randolph] denies knowing that T.R. was using her Brightside Health Therapist Portal log-in credentials or treating clients under her account. However, [she] received compensation for the sessions conducted.”
According to the Tennessee agreement, the woman “was not licensed or trained to provide any sort of counseling services.” The issue came to light after the Tennessee settlement in May, which noted that Randolph was supposed to provide online therapy to “hundreds of clients” for Brightside Health from January 2021 to February 2023. However, Brightside’s internal investigation revealed that Heath-Randolph had been “seeing all her patients and had been for a long time,” according to the Florida investigation report.
Following the revelation, both state health departments ended their investigations after Randolph surrendered her social worker’s licenses in both states. The case underscores the importance of stringent verification processes in online therapy services to protect patients from fraudulent practitioners.
