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The Oregon Department of Justice filed fraud charges in Josephine County Circuit Court last month against Rever Grand, the Grants Pass company that provides home care workers for people with disabilities. The dozen felony charges are related to claims for payment submitted by Rever Grand employees over the past four years.
The state says the indictment threatens the company’s ability to bill Medicaid. “In coming months, the ODHS Office of Developmental Disabilities Services may be unable to make payments to Rever Grand using Medicaid funding to reimburse for services provided,” warned agency spokeswoman Elisa Williams in an email to WW.
The indictment, filed Aug. 16 and unsealed late last month, was first reported by the The Rogue Valley Times earlier today. The newspaper obtained an email sent to Jackson County caseworkers saying the suspension of Medicaid payments was “now legally likely” and that the state wanted caseworkers “to transition folks to a new CLS Agency.”
The indictment has long been telegraphed by the Oregon DOJ. The company was named as a defendant in a pair of indictments filed in June that charged its two founders, Raymond Parenteau and Jesse Jolene, with fraud and theft.
But at the time, the company wasn’t formally indicted. Now it is.
As WW reported last month, Rever Grand is raking in more than $100 million a year in payments from the state, most of which is funded by the federal insurance program Medicaid.
Rever Grand and its founders have denied wrongdoing from the beginning. The company and the couple have all pleaded not guilty. “There are currently charges against the business which we feel are unfounded,” wrote Vicki Smith, a Rever Grand executive, In an email sent to employees this earlier this afternoon.
For now, the DHS spokesperson says, Rever Grand’s clients don’t need to do anything: They will get more information from local case managers “in the coming days.”