COLUMBUS: When a home-health aide was charged in November with raping his client’s 17-year-old sister, the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities launched a review of the aide’s employer.
The surveyor found records in disarray, improper employee-background checks and something of a mystery: the woman identifying herself as the owner and CEO of Atlas Home Health Care was not the man listed as CEO on records Atlas had submitted to the state.
According to records that department officials released last week, the surveyor asked to see the woman’s file and found “no proof available to demonstrate she has a four-year degree and experience in the provision of services to individuals with developmental disabilities.”
The North Side home-health agency is one of 800 statewide that have met federal requirements for certification by Medicare, a designation that, in Ohio, allows them to bill Medicare and Medicaid for in-home care. Atlas also had obtained separate state certifications to serve Ohioans with developmental disabilities and to provide in-home care for the elderly.
But that oversight is often not rigorous enough to root out fraud and abuse…