Maryland Health Secretary Joshua Sharfstein told a town hall meeting in Columbia Tuesday night that the troubled Developmental Disabilities Administration has made significant progress since discovering $34 million in unspent funds last year.
“It looks like we’re in the red” by $4 million or $5 million for the fiscal year that ended June 30, “which is a good thing for this agency,” Sharfstein said, “but we don’t know yet.”
MarylandReporter.com was honored Tuesday night by the Washington chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists for a package of stories that uncovered the failure of one state agency to spend $38 million on people with developmental disabilities, even while thousands waited for services.
Read MoreAfter a rocky six months for the Developmental Disabilities Administration, Gov. Martin O’Malley’s fiscal year 2013 budget proposal increases funding by about $31 million and creates a new fund so unspent money will stay in the agency. Health Secretary Joshua Sharfstein and Developmental Disabilities Administration Director Thomas Kirkland sent a letter detailing the agency’s budget initiatives to all members of the General Assembly on Wednesday morning. O’Malley’s proposed budget for FY 2013 is $837 million, a nearly 4% increase over the funds the agency has in the current fiscal year.
Read MoreHealth Department officials told a Senate committee Wednesday the department would immediately begin to provide emergency assistance to those in the top tier of the Developmental Disabilities Administration waiting list. The step is the first of four major steps outlined by the department to make up for a $34 million budget blunder that left thousands on the DDA waiting list without services for a period of at least two years.
Read MoreHealth Secretary Joshua Sharfstein will try to explain to the Senate Finance Committee Wednesday how the Developmental Disabilities Administration left $38 million unspent over the last two years while 6,500 patients sit on a waiting list for state services. Most of the caregivers and advocates for the disabled were angry and upset after MarylandReporter.com reported about the unspent money three weeks ago, a surplus that forced $25 million in potential state aid to be reverted to the general fund. We profile three of the affected families.
Read MoreThe beleaguered Developmental Disabilities Administration, with thousands on its waiting list for care, left $25 million in state funding unspent over the last two years, and wound up having to return the money to the state’s general fund.
The agency also had a $12 million surplus in its federal Medicaid match, meaning there was a total $38 million left over.
The surpluses had apparently been going on for some time, leaving millions in the kitty that were supposed to be spent on people with some of the most severe physical and mental disabilities, many unable to care for themselves.
Maryland’s Developmental Disabilities Administration failed to seek $3 million in federal reimbursement it was due, and also overpaid care providers $3.6 million, according to a highly critical state audit released Tuesday.
Among 14 findings, the state Office of Legislative Audits said the agency paid contractors for services to dead people, failed to properly monitor clients who lost their Medicaid eligibility, reported inaccurate information about waiting lists to the General Assembly and did not have adequate security for its information systems.
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