State agency improperly collects millions from developmentally disabled, declines to offer refunds
A state agency improperly collected more than $4 million from its disabled clients and then decided it would be too expensive to figure out how to refund the money.
That's just one finding in a state legislative audit of the Developmental Disabilities Administration of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene released yesterday.
The agency oversees the care of about 25,000 people with developmental disabilities, including Down Syndrome. It has consistently failed to monitor the contractors it hires to provide services to this vulnerable population, which are mostly paid for by the federal Medicaid program. The small co-payments by the clients (or their families) were taken for years, and the agency did not realize they were improper.
The last three audits have show similar problems. After a 2013 audit, the DDA (that's the acronym for the Developmental Disabilities Administration) hired consultants to get the books and management straight. This new audit found that DDA did not manage these consultants competently. "The contract rates for four vendor employees ranged from $195 to $416 per hour," the auditors wrote. "Furthermore, DDA lacked an effective means to monitor payments and control costs because the contracts did not contain the anticipated effort (hours) to complete the related deliverables. Moreover, the full contract values were paid even though some deliverables were not received; DDA did not attempt to modify the contract to reduce its payments for those deliverables."
Read more: http://www.citypaper.com/blogs/the-news-hole/bcpnews-state-agency-improperly-collects-millions-from-developmentally-disabled-declines-to-offer-refunds-20161201-story.html
