(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch
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Social worker with history of workplace misconduct loses license • Iowa Capital Dispatch [1]
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Date: 2025-01
The Iowa Board of Behavioral Health Professionals has suspended the license of a social worker who falsely claimed to be giving therapy to clients, one of whom was dead at the time.
In May 2023, the board charged Tina Miner of Ames with improperly billing clients and their insurers for therapy sessions she never performed. Rather than take action on the case, the board delegated the matter to an administrative law judge, Rachel Morgan.
In October 2024, Morgan determined Miner had falsified records and engaged in fraudulent billing. Miner’s social work license was then suspended for a minimum of three years.
Miner appealed that decision. While she did not dispute the allegations against her, she argued a suspension was too severe a punishment and that placing her license on probation would be a more suitable action by the board.
Recently, the board affirmed the earlier decision and found that a three-year suspension was warranted. The board stated the evidence indicated Miner did not make the patient visits at locations identified by the board only as “Humboldt, Friendship and Laurens” — those names may refer to care facilities or group homes — that she claimed to have made in December 2021.
“Despite not visiting any clients, (Miner) created and edited progress notes for the clients wherein she falsely stated that she held sessions with clients,” the board stated in its ruling.
The board said the acts committed by Miner were “egregious” and also stated that at her October 2024 hearing, she had submitted exhibits that contained “misleading information,” indicating that even then she lacked an understanding of the charges against her.
According to state unemployment records, Miner was working for Bridges Community Services at the time of the fraudulent billing. As part of her job, Miner had been tasked with traveling to nursing homes to provide mental health counseling for the elderly residents.
One of the bills she submitted was rejected because the man she claimed to have counseled was dead at the time. Bridges then conducted an investigation and allegedly uncovered fraudulent billings for services that Miner had falsely claimed to have provided to 17 nursing home residents. For each of the 17 residents, she had allegedly provided a false set of detailed notes about the services she claimed to have provided.
The unemployment records also indicate Bridges determined that Miner had an outstanding warrant for her arrest due to the alleged theft of resident property. An administrative law judge denied Miner’s request for unemployment benefits, ruling that she had been fired for workplace misconduct.
According to state records, Miner was fired from Pinnacle Health Facilities, a nursing home company where she worked as social services director, in November 2019. The company alleged that after some windows were broken at her home, she entered the home of a neighbor and co-worker, believing the woman was involved in the vandalism.
Miner allegedly awakened the woman and her boyfriend, which led to a physical altercation and Miner being physically thrown out of the house. Miner was later convicted of trespassing, fined $200, and fired from Pinnacle. Her subsequent application for unemployment benefits was approved with the judge in the case noting that Miner’s co-worker had not been fired as a result of the incident.
State records also show that in 2014, Miner was working for the company Life Connections as a behavioral health interventionist when she was fired for inappropriate contact with clients.
The company alleged two clients — brothers who were then aged 7 and 8 — told another counselor they had been to Miner’s home. The company alleged it then learned of several inappropriate, personal disclosures the claimant had made to clients, including that she was having surgery and was having difficulty in her marriage. The company claimed Miner later admitted to at least six personal disclosures and then denigrated the two brothers by stating she would never let them inside her house because they were drug addicts and thieves.
Her application for unemployment benefits was later denied due to workplace misconduct.
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