Auditor Finds Angel Carriers Owes Medicaid $486,839

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Angel Carriers LLC owes the Ohio Department of Medicaid $458,083 plus $28,755.69 in interest, according to Ohio Auditor Dave Yost, who says the company was ineligible to receive reimbursement for 99% “of services tested” over a three-year period.

In a letter dated July 25 to the owner of the company, Natalie Riley Rodway, the auditor says Angel Carriers did not comply with “specified Medicaid requirements for driver qualifications, service documentation and service authorization related to the provision of non-emergency medical transportation during the period of July 1, 2011, through June 30, 2014.”

Angel Carriers LLC is based at 1142 E. Midlothian Blvd. Rodway was not available for comment at the time of this posting. A woman who answered the company’s telephone said she “is out of the building. I was told to take messages.”

A news release from Yost’s office says auditors initially contacted the company on Nov. 5, 2015, to begin the examination, but were told the required records were destroyed by a fire at the company’s previous office, 5095 Market St. Auditors later determined the fire was limited to a garage and was not in the office where records were stored. After a draft report identified the entire amount reimbursed by Ohio Medicaid as an overpayment due to a lack of supporting documentation, the provider said it did have the records, according to the auditor’s office.

A subsequent review of personnel documents found that 15 drivers hired during the examination period failed to complete a required alcohol test, 14 of whom either had no background checks or completed them after the provisional hiring period. Additionally, 10 out of the total 20 drivers tested failed to obtain both first aid and CPR certification, the new release states.

Auditors identified more than three dozen other instances where drivers either lacked required training, certification, drug testing or physicians statements, or obtained them after the hiring period. As a result, auditors concluded that 13 drivers were ineligible during the entire examination period and five were ineligible until they completed all hiring and certification requirements. A total of 131 transports were provided by ineligible drivers, the news release states.

In addition, auditors discovered 252 errors in trip documentation, including 116 transports with no supporting trip documentation. Auditors also found 288 transports that lacked Certificates of Medical Necessity (CMN) and 46 with CMNs that did not certify that recipients met any criteria for medical necessity, did not include a medical condition that necessitated the level of transport, or were not signed by an authorized practitioner.

A full copy of the auditor’s report is available online.

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