Monthly Archives: October 2016

Minnesota Autism Center Employee Ms. Adams gets one year probation for neglecting to report child Abuse

idilabdull | October 23rd, 2016
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Alright – so, Ms. Adams who works at Minnesota Autism Center (MAC) in their Mankato location was charged by the Mankato police for failing to report child abuse to the authorities as required. The case is now done and she only got one year probation meaning as long as she does not violate the terms of the probation or repeat similar violation, her record will not reflect this crime and won’t even have this incident. I guess that is better than nothing. I think Katie Strong who is the licensed mental health professional there above Ms. Adams should’ve been charged as well.

There are many children in MAC centers that are sadly abused, restrained excessively and neglected, but no one has been able to do anything about it thus far. MAC is funded by the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS). Last year alone, MAC received $21,759,357 from DHS for ABA therapy. Yet, the state Medicaid agency whose responsibility is to assure individuals that are disabled, poor or elderly are safe keeps failing here.

DHS has no mechanism to assure our kids with ASD in MAC centers are safe and free from neglect and abuse. I mean zero, zilch and zap mechanism. This is soooo sad to me as an advocate but more importantly as an autism mom. Abuse is never ok for anyone, and so many of these kids can’t tell us what happened or defend themselves are clearly being abused at MAC centers, yet we have no way to protect them.

Shame on DHS for failing our kids with ASD yet again.

I know this is now becoming a broken record statement and I hate to use the race card every time, I just can’t help but think if this was a Somali child care center that was abusing or allowing abuse of children – what would DHS do? …think about it.

DHS would cry from every river to make sure those kids were protected. Yet when Ron Carey and Kathryn Marshall at MAC do it, DHS sleeps and pretends to be blind. I wonder why?

As usual, above words do not represent any committee, agency or candidate.

Idil – Autism Mom & Advocate

Category: My two cents - ok 1 1/2 cents

Behavior Dimensions is fined by CMS to the tune of almost three million dollars – yet no hoopla

idilabdull | October 22nd, 2016
Comments Off on Behavior Dimensions is fined by CMS to the tune of almost three million dollars – yet no hoopla

Alright – so, The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) fined Behavior Dimensions Inc. (BDI). BDI provides ABA therapy for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in Minnesota. It is run by Dr. Nancy Schussler and Jay O’Neill. Depending who you talk to – there are lots of good and bad information from parents and previous staff. In my opinion – I can do without the huffing and puffing of Dr. Schussler. I really don’t know her partner at all.

At any rate, few years back when Minn DHS was in denial in covering ABA services for wealthier fee for service ASD families, the state legislature and CMS prompted an audit for some ABA agencies. BDI was among that list. It turns out that BDI billed Medicaid fraudulently by $2,772,517.00.

The reasons were diagnostic assessments not completed on time as required, missing or unsigned ITPs, and ITP’s not being reviewed every 90 days as required per CTSS guidelines. BDI also lacked proper clinical supervision. Therefore, CMS cited BDI for failing to meet the requirements needed for reimbursement of ABA services. DHS commissioner was asked to recoup this amount in lump sum, installment payments or deductions/withholding from Minnesota Health Care Programs (MHCP) payments.

Now, let’s imagine this was a minority owned agency. DHS would’ve had a meltdown. They would’ve closed shop, revoked their license and charged them with everything in the kitchen sink. None of that has happened. DHS has been mostly silent. The media that writes and writes when minority owned agencies do anything wrong has also been silent. It is as though it never happened.

Guess why that is? I have a theory. Wait for it…..drum roll please……implicit bias that is so subliminal it is buried under their soul. In other words, this is yet another reason of why racial disparity exists in this great state of Minnesota nice! The land of 10, 000 lakes or as I like to call it – the land of 10,000 racial disparities.

Where are  Mpls and St. Paul NAACP? well – your guess is as good as mine. Probably sleeping or shouting somewhere unnecessarily. In fact, there isn’t even a phone number or an office for these organizations that is supposed to assure colored folks are treated equally. Go figure. They should be the ones calling this double standard out and contacting Gov. Dayton and Commissioner Piper about it.

Where is the minority media – you ask? well – they are too busy taking a picture with some useless politician. They never write about such things, only complain about it when others do it.

I personally don’t even blame DHS or Gov. Dayton. In Africa – there is a saying that says “lax meeshay is dhigtaa lagu qalaa” or “ishii laga arka ushii lagu tumaa”. When translated into English, it loses it’s poetic meaning but it basically means that we are at fault for not using our votes and voices wisely. It is an election year – what have the folks you voted for last time done for you? Why give the same job that they were bad at.

Ask your-self and vote differently.

Above words do not represent any candidate, agency or committee.

Idil – Autism Mom & Advocate

Category: Disparity & Politics