E -Mail -Link Deidre Gifford with scandal; Ohs commissioner to retire

One of the highest officials in the administration of governor Ned Lamont was involved in the decision to terminate an audit of 2020, which threatened to emphasize how an ophthalmologist in Connecticut reveals With mighty political connections Had the state's Medicaid program for procedures that it never carried out invoiced, documents show.

E -mails and text messages of the Connecticut Mirror show that Deidre Gifford, the former commissioner of the Ministry of Social Services and the current head of the Office of Health strategy, was involved in discussions about the examination of Helen Zervas, the owner of the family eye care in Bristol, in the days of the officials to give up this investigation.

The employees of Giffords agency passed whether the examination for Zervas voluntarily would pay back 599,000 US dollars to the Medicaid program of the state, according to the records that were charged in the framework of a criminal investigation by the federal government in the former deputy deputy budget director Konstantinos Diamantis and the former democratic legislator of the state, Christopher Ziogas.

Gifford will not face any criminal charges.

The documents show that Gifford signed this agreement, although a DSS employee informed her that the circumstances of the audit were “unusual”.

Gifford is expected to retire in July.

Gifford did not answer questions about this story. Her lawyer Thomas J. Murphy refused to comment.

Governor Ned Lamont's office gave a statement to Connecticut Mirror, who defended Gifford and repeated his support for her, on Wednesday evening.

“During the entire career of Dr. Gifford in the public service, including her leadership at the Department of Social Services and the Ministry of Public Health during one of the most difficult health crises in the history of our state, she showed an unshakable commitment to ethical behavior and transparency,” said Rob Blanchard, spokesman for the governor.

“The governor is known that she was asked to provide the federal authorities with information in connection with an ongoing examination and that she worked completely together and reacted truthfully, as everyone should,” added Blanchard. “However, the prayers asked to provide information in a federal investigation does not mean misconduct. The legal process should continue to develop without jumping or making assumptions.”

A few hours after the issue of this declaration, Lamont confirmed that Gifford would withdraw from her post and withdraw from the public service.

The news of Gifford's impending retirement was shared when CT Mirror prepared to publish this story. CT Mirror provided the governor's office with the records it had received and requested a comment at the end of last week.

Giffords direct participation in the abandoned examination it will probably make it a main witness in an upcoming criminal proceedings that affect alleged extortion, bribery and influence on the appearance of the government of Connecticut in Connecticut.

Zervas, a licensed optician, guilty in March, confessed to tie the Medicaid program of the state fraudulently over the course of more than five years. And federal prosecutors accused Diamantis and Ziogas of conspiring with Zervas in order to undermine the examination of their practice in 2020.

The charges submitted to the Federal Supreme Court claim that Zogas and Zervas, who are committed, in the spring of 2020, 95,000 US dollars in return for the advice and pressure of several “high -ranking” state officials to take the exam that have given, advise and put pressure on the years of medical invoices from Zervas.

The accusations that were not sealed in March did not identify the state officials who supposedly put Diamantis under name, even though they pointed out important players through their titles and relationships.

However, the records checked by the CT Mirror Show's Prosecutor's office was very interested in the interactions between Gifford, Melissa McCaw, the former budget director of Lamont, and John McCormick, who was then the director of the state's state audit department.

These records contained a number of Giffords emails and two months of text messages from their state-based cell phone, which contained several conversations between her and MCCAW.

'Unusual' circumstances

Most of these text messages focused on the early reaction of the state to the Covid 19 pandemic. However, an exchange of text from the end of April 2020 contained a vague indication of what was described as a “constituent matter”.

“Can you call me if you have time?” McCaw asked Gifford on April 28, 2020.

McCaw's use of the word “component” reflects the term that the state official used on May 12, 2020 to describe Zervas when Diamantis planned the delivery of her check in the amount of 599,000 US dollars to the state office of the state in Hartford.

The following day Gifford answered McCaw's text message and informed McCaw that she was available for discussing the matter that evening – exactly one week before the audit was called up, the records show.

MCCAW, who is now a financial director in the city of East Hartford, did not answer several e -mails and telephone calls as well as messages that have been left by CT Mirror reporters in their office in the past few weeks.

Shortly after Gifford spoke to McCaw, as shown in records, she also discussed Zervas and her medical practice with McCormick, who had supervised the Medicaid Audit department for more than a decade.

According to the records, the two initially spoke by phone. McCormick followed this call with an e -mail to Gifford on April 30th and explained that the circumstances of the audit of Zervas were “unusual”.

Gifford replied by telling McCormick that he should manage the audit as for any other Medicaid provider in the state.

“I don't want to intervene in this process and I want you to normally proceed under these circumstances,” wrote Gifford.

But the political nature of Zervas' case was nothing normal, as McCormick later explained to other DSS officials.

In an e -mail on May 5, 2020, McCormick announced a deputy commissioner at DSS, like Gifford, one of the best representatives of Lamont, called him directly to discuss Zervas's case. And he said he learned that Zervas had a strong ally in the governor's household office, in which both McCaw and Diamantis worked.

“The commissioner called me last week about this provider,” said McCormick, deputy commissioner of DSS, Michael Gilbert. “The provider has a friend at opm.”

McCormick explained in this e -mail that Zervas overloaded the Medicaid program, and he initially considered taking additional steps to hold Zervas for the “essential remains”.

After further review, McCormick said that he had this plan and agreed to finish the audit.

“I thought about additional measures, but I think the self -open laying has shown in good faith,” said McCormick to Gilbert.

McCormick already wrote in mid -February that he had his doubts about Zervas' invoice.

“Keep the additional work,” he wrote to a member of the test team at DSS. “Looks like a fraud.”

The lawyer of McCormick, Steve Manning, did not answer calls for this story. Gilbert, who has now withdrawn from the state service, refused to comment on the e -mails in his house at the beginning of this month.

Norm Pattis, Defender of Diamantis, said that McCormick's e -mails clearly show that Gifford was closely involved in the decision to cancel the Medicaid Audit, and he would make it an indispensable witness if Diamantis and Zogas go to court early next year.

“It seems obvious to me that Ms. Gifford knew the settlement of the Medicaid claims and that was admitted to the administration of the Medicaid claims,” said Pattis. “She will obviously be an important witness in court.”

Before the audit was officially closed, records showed that McCormick also sent an e -mail to Gifford and informed them about the final conditions of the deal with Zervas.

“I proposed to accept a package payment of 599,810 US dollars,” McCormick told Gifford. “We will cancel the Open Audit and the provider will have a Billing Consultant Review for a year.”

Gifford, who worked in the Center for Medicare and Medicaid services and worked as a Medicaid director of Rhode Island before he came to Lamont's administration, said McCormick that she felt comfortable with this plan as long as there was nothing unkinde about Zervas' actions.

“John: As long as you would normally deal with such a matter, it sounds good for me,” Gifford replied. “I assume that you have found that there was no fraudulent intention here?”

The records checked by the CT Mirror last year show that the deal that Zervas received did not typical of the way McCormick handled audits for other Medicaid providers, even if they have voluntarily returned money to the state.

Nevertheless, McCormick for Gifford confirmed that he would complete the deal and drop the audit.

“The provider accuses the Billing person,” wrote McCormick to Gifford. “I think it is advisable to take the money with the additional conformity. I don't want to discourage future disclosures.”

Leave a Comment Cancel reply