Medicaid Dispute: Ohio State Audit Faults APSI (Advocacy & Protective Services, Inc) With Spending of $1.3 Mil

State auditors said the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities has failed to account for more than $1.3 million in tax money it paid to a company that provides protective services to the mentally retarded and developmentally disabled.

The Ohio attorney general's office, which pursues Medicaid fraud, is investigating, The Dispatch has learned, although a representative would not comment.

Advocacy & Protective Services Inc. received the money in 2009 for administrative costs from the Department of Developmental Disabilities. The questions arose after the department sought reimbursement from Medicaid - the state health-care program for the poor and disabled.

"The Department of Developmental Disabilities has been unable to provide sufficient documentation to support the services performed by Advocacy & Protective Services and subsequent costs reimbursed through (Medicaid)," according to a 10-page preliminary audit by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

Instead, the state agency was simply cutting checks on a regular basis to the company even though it didn't detail what the money was for, the preliminary audit found.

A final audit has not been released, but preliminary findings were provided to The Dispatch in response to a public-records request.

Advocacy & Protective Services (APSI) is a private, nonprofit organization based in Columbus that is under contract with the developmental-disabilities agency to serve as a court-appointed legal guardian and trustee for about 4,800 Ohioans with mental retardation or other developmental disabilities.

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State Audit Faults Disability Agency in Spending of $1.3 Million