One service provider for Vermonters with disabilities and brain injuries will be taking control of another after state regulators demanded a leadership change.
Champlain Community Services, Inc., based in Colchester, agreed earlier this month to oversee the work of management and staff at Green Mountain Support Services, which is based in Morrisville and has offices in St. Johnsbury and Waterbury.
The Vermont Department of Aging and Independent Living was moving to cancel its provider agreement with Green Mountain Support Services, a process called “de-designation” in the department’s administrative rules, citing the organization’s finances and investigations by the Vermont Attorney General’s Office and the Vermont Department of Labor.
That outcome would have made GMSS ineligible to provide services paid by the state or federal government to its 122 clients across 10 counties.
“De-designation is a real big deal in our system,” said Beth Sightler, executive director of Champlain Community Services. “It’s really the entire network that has stepped forward” to help GMSS, she said.
The state contracts with a group of nonprofits — 10 “designated agencies” and five “specialized service agencies” — to support residents with developmental disabilities and their families. Their staffs provide direct services such as companionship, job support and transportation, as well as case management and coordination of shared living arrangements.
GMSS works with Vermonters with developmental disabilities and their families across most of the state, though mostly in Caledonia, Lamoille and Orleans counties. Its operating budget was close to $12 million in 2020, according to federal filings.
The Department of Aging and Independent Living put GMSS on notice in late 2021 after a standard review uncovered deficiencies in the organization’s policies and oversight procedures for its service providers, according to commissioner Monica White. The organization was put on “provisional designation” while department staff worked with GMSS leadership to resolve the issues.
While some progress was made, the department’s concerns were not fully addressed, White said. The decision to begin the process of de-designation was prompted by “the totality of the circumstances” coupled with the department learning of other investigations into GMSS, White said.
The Department of Labor determined that GMSS had mis-classified some of its workers as contractors rather than employees. Meanwhile, the Vermont Attorney General’s Office is investigating the organization for Medicaid billing irregularities.
As part of the restructuring, both GMSS board of directors chair Steve Peterson and executive director Josh Smith stepped down from their positions in early March. Both men said in interviews that they resigned for the good of the organization, with their top priority being that clients continue to receive needed services.
Smith said that GMSS worked diligently to respond to the department’s concerns over its 16 months under review, but that the process was opaque and hard to understand with “goal posts continually being moved.”
“We did everything that they were asking for,” Smith said. Smith added that the organization itself brought forward the Medicaid billing inaccuracies currently under investigation.
For now, Elizabeth Walters, GMSS clinical director, has taken over as interim executive director, and a new board president, Sarah Henshaw, has been elected.
Walters said she was grateful to Champlain Community Services for helping them maintain stability for their clients. The two organizations already work together closely, sharing the same human resources consultant, training platform and, in some cases, providers and staff.
“GMSS provides really exceptional care of the folks we look after. We have some work to do with our foundational policies and procedures,” Walters said.
“It’s a difficult place for the agency to have come to,” she said. “But all of us involved, we feel this is doable.”