California psychologist Barton H. Rubin placed on probation for dishonesty, corruption, fraud, etc.

February 1, 2011

On June 8, 2010, the California Board of Psychology placed Barton H. Rubin, Ph.D. on probation for five years for the charges of dishonesty, corruption, fraud, unprofessional conduct, and gross negligence.

According to the Board’s Accusation, the California Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board (“VCGCB”) filed a complaint with the Psychology against Rubin, alleging that he had billed and was paid for 36 therapy sessions in the amount of $3,240.

VCGCB initiated its investigation after being contacted by three claimants with concerns that Rubin was billing VCGCB for sessions which they did not attend.

All sessions in question were purportedly delivered by one of Rubin’s psychology interns.

VCGCB requested documents from Rubin to substantiate the 30 treatments delivered to “Patient D.”  On subsequent contact Rubin represented that he mailed them but after two months VCGCB had not received anything.  VCGCB then filed a complaint with the Psychology Board.

When VCGCB finally did received the requested treatment notes, their staff unanimously found them to not be original notes, but reconstructed ones, insufficient to overcome the allegations of the claimants.

VCGCB sent the Psychology Board a copy of the “notes.”  However, the Psychology Board made a new request to Rubin, requesting the therapy notes for Patient D.  Rubin responded to the Psychology Board that he had repaid the VCGCB the full amount for services provided to “D” but did not provide the treatment notes to the Psychology Board.  The Psychology Board engaged the investigative services of the California Medical Board.

An investigator from that Board made a request for certified copies, Rubin responded with a declaration that did not have the requested records, representing that he was unable to locate them; that his intern would have been responsible for keeping the records and she would have had no motive to overbill since she worked for free (as interns do), among other things.

In an investigative interview with Medical Board investigators, Rubin admitted that his supervision of interns was not done according to the standard of practice.

When confronted with the “notes” he’d provided VCGCB (after advising the investigator that he did not have any records for “D” or was unable to locate them), he admitted he had fabricated the notes—notes for sessions he had not even been present at because, as the document states, “Patient D did not have any counseling sessions by Dr. Rubin or through a psychological assistant” during most or all of the dates that Rubin billed for.

Terms of Rubin’s probation include repayment to the Board of $24,331 for its costs of investigation and the imposition of a billing monitor and must notify current and potential patients of any term or condition of probation which will affect their therapy or confidentiality of their records (such as having a billing monitor).

Source: Stipulated Settlement and Disciplinary Order in the Matter of the Accusation Against Barton Harris Rubin, Ph.D., Psychologist’s License No. PSY 11017, Case No. 1F 2007 183054, California Board of Psychology.