{"id":390580,"date":"2017-07-18T11:26:03","date_gmt":"2017-07-18T17:26:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=390580"},"modified":"2017-07-18T13:42:19","modified_gmt":"2017-07-18T19:42:19","slug":"with-agreement-in-hand-behavioral-health-ceo-believed-vindication-was-inevitable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2017\/07\/with-agreement-in-hand-behavioral-health-ceo-believed-vindication-was-inevitable\/","title":{"rendered":"With agreement in hand, behavioral health CEO believed vindication was inevitable"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_390590\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-390590\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/FYIbuilding-771x470-771x470.jpg\" alt=\"FYI\" width=\"771\" height=\"470\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/FYIbuilding-771x470.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/FYIbuilding-771x470-336x205.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/FYIbuilding-771x470-768x468.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Courtesy photo<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Families and Youth Inc. has been approved to provide Medicaid-funded behavioral health services and is going through the process of getting approved by the state&#8217;s insurers. The process will likely take several more months, FYI&#8217;s CEO Brian Kavanaugh says.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Even in his final days of battling leukemia in early 2016, Jose Frietze was fighting for the youth services agency he founded in 1977.<\/p>\n<p>The state Human Services Department had accused the organization \u2014 Las Cruces-based Families and Youth Inc. \u2014 of potential Medicaid fraud and overbilling by $856,745 in 2013. A stop payment of $1.5 million in Medicaid funding for services already provided crimped FYI\u2019s cash flow, leading to layoffs. And because of the accusations, FYI was forced to hand off part of its business to an Arizona company brought in by Gov. Susana Martinez\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article comes from\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmindepth.com\/2017\/07\/17\/with-agreement-in-hand-fyi-leader-knew-vindication-was-inevitable\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New Mexico In Depth<\/a>. Sign up for\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmindepth.us6.list-manage.com\/subscribe?u=1d2ab093d81b992e50978b363&amp;id=9294743d38\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">their newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Frietze\u2019s daughters Victoria and Marisa remember how tough the allegations were on Frietze and their family.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were there when they first started off,\u201d Victoria says. \u201cWhen they had a small building, when they got the new building, when they moved up. I mean, we\u2019ve been there all our lives, with him, and to see everything that he worked for just \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2026 fall apart \u2026\u201d Marisa interjects softly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was heartbreaking,\u201d Victoria says.<\/p>\n<p>Marisa and Victoria are gathered around the family\u2019s kitchen table with their mother, Vivian, to quietly, but ardently, defend the man Marisa calls \u201cour everything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite the suspicions and bad headlines, Frietze, a former longtime Las Cruces city councilor and school board member, remained confident until the day he died that FYI would be vindicated, they say.<\/p>\n<p>He was right. A month before he died on March 2, 2016, the state Attorney General exonerated FYI. All 15 behavioral health organizations accused of Medicaid fraud by the Martinez administration in 2013 would\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmindepth.com\/2016\/04\/05\/ag-clears-final-two-behavioral-orgs-accused-of-fraud\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">eventually be cleared<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps Jose Frietze was so confident because in 2012 FYI had gone through an investigation by the state Attorney General\u2019s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit after the organization discovered and self-reported billing problems. That investigation covered three-quarters of the period that just months later would be audited by a consultant for the state. And, FYI had in hand an\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/3893528-FYI-AG-Medicaid-Fraud-Control-Unit-agreement.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">agreement<\/a>\u00a0that released it from any liability, civil or criminal, for the period of November 2009 through May 2012.<\/p>\n<p>In August 2016,\u00a0HSD notified FYI it had found the agreement. A month after that, HSD released FYI\u2019s frozen Medicaid funds and dropped its overbilling allegations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt appeared like, oops, time to release their payment,\u201d says Brian Kavanaugh, who succeeded Frietze as FYI\u2019s CEO.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_390588\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 336px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-390588\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/JoseFrietze-336x389-336x389.jpg\" alt=\"Jose Frietze\" width=\"336\" height=\"389\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Courtesy photo<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A portrait of Jose Frietze hangs in the family home. It is the favorite of his wife of 41 years, Vivian.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The Human Services Department did not respond to NMID\u2019s questions about the settlement agreement and the reasons why it dropped overbilling charges and released the Medicaid dollars.<\/p>\n<p>Their silence leaves unanswered questions: Why did HSD target FYI as one of the 15 organizations to be audited in 2013? Did HSD mistakenly target FYI in 2013?<\/p>\n<p>If HSD was in regular communication with the Attorney General\u2019s Office in the lead up to the 2013 audit of 15 organizations, including FYI, as\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/778138-pcg-audit-protocols-redacted-disclosed-by-ag-8.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">state documents show<\/a>, did the human services agency know of the 2012 agreement?<\/p>\n<p>If it did, why did it continue to demand reimbursements for overbilling over the full period covered by the 2013 audit \u2014 July 2009 through January 2013 \u2014 instead of just the time not covered by the 2012 agreement?<\/p>\n<p>Kavanaugh, who has been with FYI for 14 years, believes HSD knew about the agreement. FYI provided copies multiple times, but it never got a response, he says.<\/p>\n<p>Roque Garcia, CEO of Southwest Counseling Center, another accused organization, remembers Frietze hand-delivering the agreement to an HSD official in Santa Fe after the 2013 audit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was at the capitol when we saw Larry Heyeck,\u201d Garcia said of then\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/778138-pcg-audit-protocols-redacted-disclosed-by-ag-8.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">deputy general counsel\u00a0<\/a>for the Human Services Department. \u201cI told Larry Heyeck, \u2018FYI has already been audited and there has been an agreement that has already been given. You can read it.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n<p>Unlike FYI, Garcia\u2019s Las Cruces organization didn\u2019t survive the state\u2019s accusations, even though it was exonerated like all the rest. In May, after the years of battling overbilling estimates that reached\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/3881826-Amended-SOE-Pp-1-6.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">$2.8 million as recently as January<\/a>,\u00a0the state\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/3882513-Southwest-Counseling-Center-to-pay-484-71.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reduced to $484.71<\/a>\u00a0what it said Southwest Counseling Center owed, which the organization paid.<\/p>\n<p>To Kavanaugh\u2019s knowledge, the Human Services Department never acknowledged whether it had received the agreement from FYI. And it never told them why it was dropping demands for repayment.<\/p>\n<h3>Fighting until the day he died<\/h3>\n<p>Jose Frietze spent most of his adult life dedicated to helping children in Las Cruces and serving his community \u2014 he served a combined 22 years on the local school board and city council.<\/p>\n<p>When he died there was an\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.lcsun-news.com\/story\/news\/local\/2016\/03\/06\/jose-frietze-fyi-head-and-city-leader-dies\/81415802\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">outpouring of remembrances<\/a>\u00a0in Las Cruces.<\/p>\n<p>Vivian, his wife, says the dismantling of FYI hurt Frietze and the many people working there, but even more so because of the collateral damage. \u201cThere was no place to go for some of those children.\u201d<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>And, Frietze was determined to bring a lot of services back to children and youth in southern New Mexico. \u201cEven a few hours before he passed away, he was still talking about FYI, his plans,\u201d says Vivian, a petite woman with short-cropped dark hair wearing\u00a0silver and turquoise earrings.<\/p>\n<p>These days, FYI is rebuilding.<\/p>\n<p>Kavanaugh says the agency has been approved by the state to begin providing Medicaid-funded services again. It will be a long process. FYI still can\u2019t be reimbursed by the state\u2019s managed care organizations. First, FYI must be credentialed by them, then they need to negotiate contracts. Hopefully, says Kavanaugh, that will happen within the coming months.<\/p>\n<p>While that process continues, FYI is looking into just what services to bring back. In May, La Clinica de Familia<a href=\"http:\/\/www.lcsun-news.com\/story\/news\/local\/2017\/05\/30\/teen-group-homes-close-las-cruces\/102143234\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u00a0closed<\/a>\u00a0a youth shelter and group homes for teens.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe ran those homes successfully for over 20 years,\u201d Kavanaugh says. \u201cAnd in the space of three and a half years, they went to La Frontera, then La Clinica, and now they\u2019re closed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>La Frontera New Mexico is the Arizona company that took over FYI\u2019s business but\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.santafenewmexican.com\/special_reports\/mental_health_shake-up\/la-frontera-ceo-new-mexico-expansion-a-nightmare\/article_e154ae48-7c36-51d2-86c7-16374c43ff28.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">departed New Mexico in 2015<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Now FYI\u00a0is looking into reopening the homes, and is talking with the state Children, Youth and Families Department, as well as other stakeholders, Kavanaugh says. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to fill the gaps in service that we have in southern New Mexico,&#8221; he says.<\/p>\n<p>It is the slow, steady revival Jose Frietze had been hoping and planning for, but will not get to see.<\/p>\n<p>Frietze\u2019s daughter, Victoria, recalls her father\u2019s optimism about rebuilding FYI.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe knew they were gonna get cleared, he knew they were gonna get money, cause he was there 24\/7 working on it,\u201d says Victoria. \u201cHe just knew it was gonna take some time, but he envisioned them getting programs back, building up, even growing in the future. That\u2019s what he saw happening.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Even in his final days of battling leukemia in early 2016, Jose Frietze was fighting for the youth services agency he founded in 1977.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":390590,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[117,145,3281,107],"class_list":["post-390580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-health-care","tag-las-cruces","tag-medicaid-freeze","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}