A publicly funded social service nonprofit in Bennington County will pay the state of Vermont $483,464 to settle allegations that its substandard services put clients and the public at risk, the Vermont attorney general’s office announced Thursday.
United Counseling Services of Bennington County is one of 10 “designated agencies” that are contracted by the Vermont Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living (DAIL) to provide development services on the state’s behalf. Medicaid is the program’s main funding source.
The settlement follows a two-year long investigation by the attorney general’s office that began when it received a complaint from DAIL about UCS’s oversight of Vermonters with developmental disabilities who pose serious safety risks. As part of the agreement, UCS “does not dispute” that its failures caused “serious and preventable risks” to the public and their clients, some of whom had a history of sexualized violence.
UCS has also agreed to put several organizational reforms into place. They include paying for an external monitor, hiring a new director of quality to take over day-to-day management of the developmental services division and publicly reporting substantive corrections for up to three years.
“The safety of all Vermonters is of the utmost concern in Medicaid fraud investigations and enforcement efforts, and I want to thank my team and our partners at the Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living for their joint efforts in resolving this matter,” Attorney General Charity Clark said in a statement.
The state could potentially cancel its contract with UCS for developmental services altogether. DAIL has placed UCS on “provisional designation with intent to de-designate," according to Rebecca Silbernagel, the department’s principal assistant.
The non-profit was on a lower-level probationary status “for nearly two years after repeated failures to achieve the consistent delivery of quality services,” Silbernagel wrote in an email.
Another update to UCS’s developmental services contract is expected before mid-June, according to Silbernagel. Separately, the nonprofit also provides substance use and mental health services on behalf of the state, but these are unaffected by DAIL’s enforcement actions.
In a statement, UCS CEO Lorna Mattern said that the nonprofit had “worked collaboratively” with DAIL “throughout this process, and have been taking corrective action steps to improve compliance, reporting, and quality across multiple areas in the agency.”
Vermont’s designated agencies are perennially troubled. And Lindsey St. Amour, the executive director of Disability Rights Vermont, said that while she was “pleased to see this level of oversight and monitoring with regard to UCS,” the state had a “larger role to play” in better funding — and more robustly regulating — the private entities that deliver such services.
“DRVT is concerned that the unfortunate circumstances that gave rise to this lawsuit in the first place are still happening in other parts of our state,” she said.
