Category Archives: feeney

Who Pressured NY DOH into Bringing Back a Clinical Predator?

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Someone must have pressured the New York State Department of Health to enter into a contract that allows a clinical predator back into the lives of brain injury survivors, their families and those who provide services to them. Some political favor or debt has called in, someone with some pull who clearly cares absolutely nothing about brain injury survivors.

I make this observation because it is the only thing that makes sense. There are some truly good people working at the DOH who really do care about brain injury survivors. But who among them (or anyone for that matter) can say with a straight face that they are comfortable with the department’s entering into a contract that allows Timothy J. Feeney, who by all accounts is nothing but a full-blown narcissist, back into the lives of those of us living with brain injuries.

There are some good people at the DOH and I dare say many would be forced to bite deep into their tongues in order to get themselves to say, “I think it is fine that someone who lies about his credentials to everyone provides services related to the TBI Waiver.” Don’t forget, Feeney and his company are already an approved provider of waiver services which makes one wonder what will be done about the obvious conflict of interest now that the clinical predators are back as the “neurobehavioral project.”  But Feeney doesn’t stop there. Let’s not forget that only this week Feeney was up in Washington County’s Fort Ann School District working with disabled children, never mind that school officials know his credentials are bogus. So much for putting children first.

A DOH official who  I will not name said the DOH has been assured by Maria Dibble, the executive director of the Southern Tier Independence Center, the recipient of the more than $250,000 contract that will hand the work to Feeney, that the provisions of the contract will be carried out in the highest professional manner. As presented, Ms. Dibble’s reassurance would actually be funny were it not so morally and clinically troubling – not too mention absent any relationship to  reality. How on earth can you provide quality services when you know the person providing them is lying about their credentials?

An email asking Ms. Dibble to explain STIC’s support for Feeney has gone unanswered.

Back to the question of the day. Who is pulling the strings? Is it solely a coincidence that Patricia Greene Gumson, a former DOH employee and Feeney supporter used to work at STIC? Sources have made it clear that both Ms. Gumson and current DOH employee Bruce Rosen had the reality of Feeney’s invalid college degrees brought to their attention and they did nothing about it.  There is no doubt that Gumson and Rosen did some admirable things over the years, no doubt at all. But this truth does not spare them accountability for supporting a clinical predator who likes to call himself “the angel of death” and has been known to be a bully. I’ve heard him refer to himself like this and the late Dr. Mark Ylvisaker often referenced Feeney’s penchant for this macabre moniker.

But back to the question at hand. Who pulled the strings for Feeney? To where or to whom does the corruption thread lead? One possible clue would be to watch which provider Feeney buddies up with.

Anyway, the truth will out.

 

Sometimes the Reader Says It Best

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I don’t know that I have ever posted a reader’s comment as a standalone piece before, but I am posting this one. This person has successful stated what is in the hearts and minds of thousands across the New York State and beyond right now, it accurately echoes what I and others heard for years about Feeney.

“A  new comment on your post "Responding to a Reader about Feeney’s Work":

In an era when accountability and responsibility are important and stressed by the NYS government and DOH they award contracts to a facility who hires someone lying about his credentials. That’s the message that DOH chooses to give to all other providers, staff and organizations serving people with disabilities. The OMIG and the state attorney should be involved not just now but for all these years that the self proclaimed "Dr Feeney" did his work. If DOH would have elicited feedback from providers, regional offices and participants alike, they would never allow him to work with survivors as part of this program and be part of a contract they award nevertheless.”

True that.

More than a Quarter Million New York Dollars

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If, for some odd reason, you recently found yourself thinking bureaucracy couldn’t get any more dysfunctional, think again. Despite hard economic times, New York state officials entered into a contract that will funnel more than a quarter million hard-earned New York State tax dollars into a project even though they are fully aware that the implementation of the contract includes the widely discredited Timothy J. Feeney.

As the several thousand regular readers of this blog know, Feeney is the person who continues to tromp about claiming to be Timothy J. Feeney PhD or Dr. Timothy Feeney when he no more has a valid doctorate than Fred Flintstone does (apologies to Mr. Flintstone). Feeney doesn’t have a valid masters degree either.

Nonetheless, New York State decided to go ahead an enter into a contract with the Southern Tier Independence Center (STIC) in Binghamton which in turn will give Timmy a major role in the lives of brain injury survivors, their families and health care providers, all of who face enough challenges as it is, much less having to face the unwanted challenge of dealing with dishonest man who is part of a contract that with drain more a quarter million from state coffers.

While it is unclear (though we can guess) what went into the decision to funnel more than a quarter of a million dollars into a contract that empowers a fraud, there is one thing that clearly did not play a role in the decision; a sincere desire to provide the best services to people who live with brain injuries, their families, and the honorable providers that day in and day out try to provide the best services possible.

A Tarnished STIC Brings Feeney Back

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The New York State Department of Health has signed a contract with the Southern Tier Independent Living Center (STIC) in Binghamton New York giving it the neurobehavioral project for the state’s traumatic brain injury waiver.  Even though STIC Executive Director Maria Dibble knows Timothy J. Feeney misrepresents his credentials to people with disabilities (including children!), the very people she, STIC, and Feeney claim to serve, the neurobehavioral project will once again be handed to Feeney.

While the contract still needs to go through a review by New York’s attorney general and comptroller for approval, sources say it is unlikely the contract will be voided.

Any advocate or advocacy group that does not openly voice its disapproval of Feeney’s presence in the mix, is, by default, part of the problem. It’s like claiming to be a civil rights organization and then keeping your mouth shut when people are being made to ride in the back of the bus. Any provider who allows Feeney anywhere near their program clearly doesn’t think much of the people they claim to serve.

What would be interesting would be to have a public debate between myself and Mr. Feeney (he’d have to find some backbone) at which he can explain why it is okay to mislead people with disabilities and lie about his credentials.

In the meantime, I am urging all advocates and interested parties to file complaints with the government fraud division of the State Comptroller and the state attorney general’s healthcare industry task force. There are other investigations under way now into Feeney that I cannot talk about.

You can also file your concerns and complaints with the Kahrmann Advocacy Coalition at kahrma1(insert at sign)gmail.com

No human being deserves to receive their healthcare services or have their healthcare services influenced by someone who misrepresents his credentials. Imagine your family members receiving care from a doctor and then you find out the doctor is not a doctor at all.

Feeney and those supporting him ought to be doubled up with guilt, but that’s not happening.  It’s hard to feel guilt when you don’t have a conscience.

In Fairness to STIC

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The Southern Tier Independence Center in Binghamton New York is in line to get the contract for the Neurobehavioral Project for the state’s Traumatic Brain Injury Waiver. If history has it’s way, they will give the work to Timothy J. Feeney and his staff. That would be a terrible mistake.

However, it is important that fairness is given to STIC and, by all accounts, its remarkable leader, Maria Dibble. One cannot assume (remember the Odd Couple joke) that Ms. Dibble and STIC have been made fully aware of all the untenable realities linked to Feeney.

But now STIC knows. This writer and others have provided Ms. Dibble and STIC with a plethora of documentation that reveals, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Mr. Feeney’s claims to have a PhD and a Masters degree are bogus. Both degrees, as the several thousand readers of this blog already know, were issued by Greenwich University, a now defunct diploma mill off the coast of Australia. In fact, one of the bogus degrees issued Mr. Feeney by Greenwich was issued before the diploma  mill before it moved from the American west coast to Norfolk Island off of Australia.

Now, STIC is aware.

STIC has also been made aware that Mr. Feeney has contracted with at least one public school district, the Fort Ann School District in Washington County, and is again presenting himself as Dr. Feeney or Timothy Feeney PhD. STIC has also been made aware that Feeney’s company’s voicemail already says they (not STIC) are under contract with the DOH as the Neurobehavioral Project when two things are true, the contract is not signed and were it signed, it would be with STIC, not Feeney’s company.

There’s more, and there’s more because all I hear of Maria Dibble and STIC is positive and she and they deserve all the facts. Some have already reached out to STIC about their concerns and STIC has been informed that some providers of services under the waiver will drop out if Feeney and his company are in any way involved.

For STIC, or anyone for that matter, to give the work to Feeney and his people now would be to somehow approve of the fact he misrepresents his credentials to families, consumers, providers and, in the case of the schools he is involved with, children. There have been complaints filed against him as a result of his actions at Fort Ann already.

Now STIC and Maria Dibble are aware of the facts, and they are honorable folks and I would like to think will do the honorable thing.

To give the work to Feeney, who is already misrepresenting himself even more on his new resume where claims, for example, that he is a “Registered psychologist (temporary)” in Victoria, Australia, resulted in this response from Linda Jen, the Senior Registration Officer for the Psychologists Registration Board of Victoria:  “Our records indicate that Timothy Feeney is not registered with the Psychologists Registration Board of Victoria. However, I am unsure what you mean by “temporary” registration?”

So again, it is another misrepresentation by Feeney. Now STIC and Maria Dibble do know the facts.  For them to work with Feeney now would mean that in some way STIC and Maria Dibble are comfortable working with someone who continues to misrepresent himself to consumers, children, professionals, and, perhaps in this case, the very agency that was going to give him work.

Were Feeney and his company given the work, then it would certainly appear to be a tail wagging the dog scenario, meaning Feeney, not STIC and Ms. Dibble, is calling the shots.

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