Audit: Memphis Assisted Living Center Wasted Medicaid Money

 

Tennessee Comptrollers have called out yet another assisted living facility for spending Medicaid dollars in ways not legally allowed, this time to the tune of nearly $96,000.

The facility this time is the Memphis-based Shelby Residential and Vocational Services.

All this, according to an audit Tennessee Comptrollers released this week.

“Shelby Residential and Vocational Services, Inc. included $36,182.34 of nonallowable expenses on the cost report for the period July 1, 2017, through June 30, 2018,” according to the audit.

“The nonallowable expenses included marketing- related expenses, rental expenses unrelated to resident care, unsupported expenses, and late fees. As a result of the adjustments, as well as the adjustments to resident days, the Medicaid Program overpaid the facility an estimated $95,907.39, computed from February 1, 2019, through September 30, 2019.”

According to the facility’s website, Shelby Residential and Vocational Services caters to people with disabilities.

As The Tennessee Star reported last month, Tennessee Comptrollers said staff members at two other health care facilities in the state billed Medicaid for a lot more than legally allowed.

In two separate audits, Comptrollers called out staff at The Bridge at Highland in Portland, Tenn. and Signature HealthCare of Putnam County in Cookeville.

As reported in August, Tennessee taxpayers lost more than $3 million after a corporate-run nursing facility billed the state that much money for expenses not covered under Medicaid.

That corporation, AltaCare, is based out of Alpharetta, Georgia.

As The Tennessee Star reported, employees at an Oak Ridge health care facility billed Medicaid more than $25,000 for items that Medicaid wasn’t supposed to cover.

As also reported that month, the Bureau of TennCare overpaid more than $600,000 to a now-closed health care clinic in Madisonville. Officials at this facility, the Women’s Wellness and Maternity Center, also over-reported nearly 5,000 paid TennCare visits.

These same officials also under-reported more than $50,000 in payments from managed care organizations, third parties, and patients, auditors wrote.

As reported in April, members of a Franklin-based facility, ProHealth Rural Services, Inc., allegedly committed fraud to get $6 million in TennCare benefits to which it was not entitled. Also, The Star reported last year, TennCare gave out more than $700,000 to duplicate members and to people who were already dead or incarcerated.

All those recipients were ineligible to receive TennCare money.

– – –

Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].