Prometheus 6

Quote of note:

It's not the first time the issue has been raised. A 2004 report by the Department of Children & Families' inspector general concluded that the family of a disabled Tampa Bay child ''received special consideration'' from the state following phone calls from the aide of a powerful lawmaker.

The 2004 report quoted a doctor who worked for DCF's developmental disabilities office as stating ''that politics play a part in the daily operations'' of the program.

Report: AIDS funds wrongly diverted
Florida social service administrators took $200,000 from an AIDS program to pay the bills of a Broward child with autism, a state report said. Favoritism may have been a factor.
BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER

Faced with a long waiting list and short on dollars to meet the needs of disabled Floridians, state administrators ''went shopping'' for the money elsewhere, an inspector general's report says.

Apparently, those with AIDS paid the price.

In 1999, the politically connected parent of a disabled Broward County youngster threatened to sue state social service officials who refused to pay for the youngster's care. The report, by the Agency for Health Care Administration's inspector general, says that state authorities diverted about $200,000 in federal AIDS dollars to pay for the child's care.

The report raises several concerns. Among them: whether state social service administrators routinely pilfer money from one pot to cover shortfalls in another, and whether they play favorites when deciding whom to serve among a 15,000-name waiting list of disabled Floridians in need of care.

To Florida AIDS advocates, the conclusions of the 200-page report confirm their long-standing fears that people with AIDS suffer particular neglect in a state known for its meager spending on social services.

''It is completely immoral and unethical to take money away from people with AIDS,'' said Sheri Kaplan, executive director of the Center for Positive Connections, an HIV and AIDS resource and support center in North Miami.

So who approved the diversion of funds?

According to the report, at least two high-ranking state administrators told investigators that former AHCA Medicaid Bureau Chief Shelly Brantley -- and perhaps others in the agency -- approved the funding. One of the administrators told investigators that when he questioned Brantley about the propriety of the diversion, she responded: ``Find a way to pay it. Do what you're told to do.''

Brantley, now director of Florida's Agency for Persons with Disabilities, declined to comment for this story.

Lindsay Hodges, a spokeswoman for Brantley in Tallahassee, declined to discuss the report in detail, saying Brantley had not read the report, and was not interviewed as a part of the investigation. Hodges said, in an e-mail, the Broward family's settlement with the state ``was resolved prior to [Brantley's] employment with AHCA.''

Yet two high-ranking administrators told inspector general investigators that Brantley was involved in the decision to divert the money. It was not clear from the report what role Brantley had at the agency at the time, and her spokeswoman could not furnish a copy of Brantley's résumé to The Herald on Tuesday.

...Officials interviewed by the inspector general said one of the Broward child's parents was friendly with a Broward County commissioner, who was not named, and a former state Cabinet official.

Karen Alday-Henderson, a program analyst with AHCA, told inspector general investigators: ``I believe that [the parent's] political clout has something to do with how this happened.''

AN ADOPTED CHILD

The Broward couple, now divorced, adopted the youngster in the 1990s from the Department of Children & Families' foster care program.

In the spring of 1999, DCF's adoption program announced it would refuse to continue paying for the child's care, including costly ''intensive behavioral treatments,'' beginning that June. The therapy was intended to combat the effects of autism, an often debilitating neurological disorder that can leave children extremely difficult to manage.

Desperate for help, the family appealed DCF's rejections and threatened to sue the state. The family also threatened to give the child back to the state, Creel told the inspector general investigators.[P6: real loving parents...]

1999 AGREEMENT

What resulted was a settlement agreement in 1999 between the family and AHCA, which agreed to pay about $40,000 per year for the child's care.