Maryland’s Developmental Disability Administration is still failing to properly follow up with people with disabilities to ensure they are getting the right care from the state, according to a February letter from the state’s Office of Legislative Audits.
The issue was highlighted in an October 2022 audit by OLA, which found that over the two-year period from 2020 to 2021, 95% of the nearly 16,000 people receiving services from DDA had at least one missing quarterly report.
The problem, according to OLA, has reached back to 2009, giving the Maryland Department of Health a 15-year-span to rectify the deficiency.
“Part of what guides people's services and supports is our person-centered plan, and that is created and overseen, sort of monitored by the coordinators of community services (CCS),” said Rachel London, the executive director of the Maryland Developmental Disabilities Council.
CCSs are organizations contracted by MDH to provide services like residential assistance, job placement, training and other vital support for people with disabilities.
“To make sure people are getting the services that they need, and outlined in their person-centered plan that falls on the CCS to oversee that, and that's why those reviews and visits are so important,” London said.
The audit pointed out that 771 people relying on CCSs never got a quarterly follow-up during 2020 or 2021 and 8,240 people missed half of them.
“We hire these contractors to make sure that the plan is implemented,” said Josh Adler, the assistant director of audit managers at OLA. “This is key, because you and I know that unfortunately, many of the people with developmental disabilities, they can't call up and say, ‘Listen, nobody's making sure I get this plan. Nobody's coming out and monitoring to see if I'm getting the services they need or not, please help me.’ They can't say that we, you and I, the state, are responsible for that.”
Adler said MDH has had ample time to fix the issue.
“We've had four audits before this, saying the same thing — Make sure, please God make sure, that these people with developmental disabilities are having these quarterly plans, make sure that their services are being monitored,” Adler said. “In terms of, have they had opportunities, has the administration had time to fix it? In terms of Developmental Disabilities Administration? I would say, ‘Most definitely, yes.’”
MDH has made strides in trying to fix the issue.
According to documents obtained by WYPR, MDH contracted with Liberty Healthcare Corporation in the summer of 20-22 to improve its customer outreach quality.
DDA also issued corrective action plans last October to better quarterly outreach. The implementation of those action plans were due in January, however DDA still has not reviewed the documentation supporting them. DDA and MDH plan to finish that corrective action by the end of the month. Once corrective actions have been reviewed, Liberty will then conduct a random sampling test to determine how well they are working.
However, there are larger factors at play for what is currently ailing the quarterly check-in process, according to London.
“We have a critical workforce shortage made worse by COVID,” she said. “There's new leadership. A lot of these audits clearly were before new leadership took place. I mean, the new deputy secretary of DDA just started Jan. 10 of this year. Change takes time.”
Sen. Clarence Lam (D-Baltimore and Howard Counties), the chairman of the Joint Audit and Evaluation Committee says the new administration has a lot to unpack.
“There have been significant levels of mismanagement that have taken place at these departments and agencies,” he said. “It takes some time to be able to clean up a mess that was left to them, and help ensure that proper practices and policies are in place so that this doesn't happen again.”
OLA will conduct another audit of DDA this year.
