Category Archives: Judy Avner

Is the Kaplen-Avner Show the problem?

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It is revealing but not surprising that the New York’s Brain Injury Association – not the state’s Traumatic Brain Injury Services Coordinating Council (TBISCC) or Department of Health – is announcing what the next TBISCC meeting will be about.  It is no secret that the leadership of all three groups are, figuratively speaking, in bed together. It is also no coincidence that Michael Kaplen and Judith Avner lead the council and both, until recently, led BIANYS. Avner is still the BIANYS executive director.

According to the BIANYS website, “The September meeting will be dedicated to a discussion of the Concussion Management and Awareness Act (S. 3953-B) which passed the legislature at the end of the session. Discussion will focus on recommendations on the implementation of that legislation to the Commissioner of the Department of Health.” The passage of the act is, without question, a positive step forward. For the council to provide recommendations is all well and good and certainly appropriate. How is it, though, that BIANYS knows, before it is a announced

It is also no secret that little if any evidence exists of BIANYS or TBISCC leadership ever taking the DOH to task for some of its rather brutal treatment of brain injury survivors and, not incidentally, its rather brutal treatment those who provide services to brain injury survivors. New York’s Brain Injury Providers Alliance, for example, has, for some time now, been rightfully pleading with the DOH for a statewide uniform billing policy and they are still waiting.

What is not appropriate and what is an act of disloyalty pure and simple to New York’s brain-injured individuals is the fact TBISCC and BIANYS leadership will do anything but hold DOH accountable.

Some examples:

  • The council was asked to look into the blatant injustice of the state’s TBI Waiver complaint line managed jointly by the DOH and BIANYS. Complainants are never told the outcomes of their complaints, a lack of due process by any measure.
  • With only one or two exceptions, the council has tip-toed around the fact the DOH has told TBI Waiver providers they cannot side with complainants at Medicaid Fair Hearings. BIANYS has completely avoided addressing this issue.
  • The TBISCC and BIANYS remain dead silent even though a recent article in the Albany Times Union  and this blog have reported DOH’s effort to use any excuse under the sun to discontinue housing subsidies for brain-brain injured individuals even when doing so would leave them homeless and jeopardize their lives. 

One question that needs to be asked is this. Is the Kaplen-Avner show the problem? A step in the right direction would be for  Kaplen and Avner to step down, then we would find out.

 

Is the problem NY’s brain injury leadership, the DOH, or both?

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The leadership of New York State’s Brain Injury Association and Traumatic Brain Injury Services Coordinating Council seems determined not to hold the state’s Department of Health accountable for anything.

Is it only a coincidence that the same people have led and, in some respects, still lead both groups?

For years attorneys Michael Kaplen and Judith Avner led BIANYS and now they head up the council.

Avner was Kaplen’s pick for assistant council chair even though she is still the BIANYS executive director. When the two attorneys led BIANYS, Kaplen was the board president. Moreover, Kaplen was a BIANYS board member at the same time he was the council’s chair. It is worth noting too that BIANYS relies on a sizeable grant from the DOH in order to operate, a reality that makes Avner’s post on the council high-risk for potential conflict of interest and, given his past relationship with BIANYS, Kaplen faces the same risk.

Violating NY Public Officers Law

Conflict of interest did not stop Kaplen or Avner from voting for a trust fund that would have clearly benefitted BIANYS. Never mind that during a September 16, 2010 council meeting they were warned against doing so by ex-officio council member Nick Rose. The trust fund was to benefit brain-injured individuals who did not qualify for the state’s TBI Waiver and BIANYS because, according to council minutes, “the Brain Injury Association of NYS ( was to) be contracted (with) to assist with the development”of the trust fund and, it is said, receive a financial percentage of the fund itself.

Despite the warning, Avner and Kaplen voted for the fund anyway, even though doing so appeared to put both in violation of New York’s Public Officers Law.  The council’s by-laws say council “members shall refrain from voting procedures in instances where a conflict of interest  may exist as defined by the Public Officers Law.”

DOH Getting Carte Blanche

As an earlier blog post points out that in its lifetime the council has never really offered so much as a single proposal to the DOH regarding what can be done to help brain-injured individuals in the state, proposals like these being the very reason they were formed in the first place. Similarly, throughout its years with Avner-Kaplen duo at the helm, BIANYS never publically held the DOH accountable for anything, a pattern that has not changed under the current BIANYS leadership duo of Avner and Marie Cavallo. Cavallo is the BIANYS board president. Another recent blog post outlines some of the issues BIANYS refuses to address publically even though they have been repeatedly asked to by this writer.

The fact of the matter is one would be hard pressed to find a single example of either group holding the DOH publically accountable for its actions, including its recent attempt to throw a 66-year-old woman with a brain injury off the waiver and charge her $24,000 in the process. It is worth noting too that in an article by Rick Karlin in today’s Albany Times Union regarding this injustice there is no mention of BIANYS. BIANYS had plenty of time to release a statement to the media because I told them in plenty of time and asked them in writing to take a public stance; a written request that was ignored by Avner and Cavallo, yet both will tell you with a straight face that BIANYS is an advocacy group.

Is the reluctance to hold the DOH accountable  a matter of morally bankrupt leadership in both groups, the power of the DOH, or a combination of both?

The Bottom Line

Managing life with a brain injury is a formidable enough challenge as it is. It should not be all the more formidable because groups like BIANYS, TBISCC, and the DOH reveal an across the board penchant for lip service steeped in moral bankruptcy. Something needs to be done. Maybe step one is for the leadership of all three to step down.

BIANYS Snubs Volunteers & Support Groups

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The Brain Injury Association of New York State refuses to reimburse its volunteers for their out-of-pocket expenses, even if it means the end of some of its support groups.

Before I continue, it is important to note that the root of this rather bewildering stance on BIANYS’s part rests with its leadership; several sources say there are BIANYS board members and others in BIANYS’s ranks who not at all comfortable with fact the group is pretty much run  by two people, Judith Avner, its executive director and Marie Cavallo, its president.

No organization runs well under the thumb of one or two people.

The genesis of this essay goes like this. Beginning in 2008 I volunteered to facilitate weekly support groups in Albany for BIANYS.  BIANYS covered the necessary liability insurance and all was well. At the time, my round-trip commute to the Albany support group site was 50 miles and I was able to afford the gas. Late last year I had to move from my rental and as a result, moved to a place 75 miles from Albany. I had no intention of letting the distance stop me from facilitating the groups but the now 150-mile weekly round-trip (600 miles a month) became financially unwieldy and the group and I reached out  to BIANYS (Avner and Cavallo) for help with the mileage, i.e., the cost of gas. BIANYS reimburses its staff at a rate of 50 cents a mile. I was told things were tight financially and if they were to help this group with expenses maybe the other volunteers who facilitate groups across the state would expect to be reimbursed for their expenses as well (I am fighting off the urge to say, Well, duh.).

Group members then began an email campaign writing to BIANYS (meaning Avner and Cavallo), telling them how important the groups are to their lives, and suggesting that BIANYS help with half its normal mileage reimbursement rate which would mean $150 a month for the 600 miles rather than $300. Finally, Avner and Cavallo agreed to help for three months at which point they would review things.

Well, as the end of the three months I approached I wrote in and group members wrote in asking for to continued help, Avner was away, Cavallo said she didn’t have the authority to approve even one check to tide the group over until Avner returned. Avner’s return did nothing. Then the story changed.  Avner and Cavallo now said they did not have the authority to approve the help in the first place and would need to refer the matter to the board (I wonder if that ever actually happened). Finally some of the groups had to be cancelled.

Facing the lack of support from the BIANYS that still likes to claim these support groups as its own, group members agreed to cut back to only two groups a month. BIANYS – meaning Avner and Cavallo – were asked, via email, if BIANYS could help with just $75 since now we were down to two groups. Avner didn’t even bother to respond to the request and Cavallo’s response was non-committal. A second email request for $75 did not get a response from either one of them.

And this is the organization that claims to be the state’s leading organization on behalf of brain injury survivors? If you believe that, write me. I know a great bridge in Brooklyn you might be interested in buying.