Category Archives: TBI Waiver

Feeney Era Ends

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Timothy J. Feeney’s reign over the New York Traumatic Brain Injury Waiver has likely come to an end.

Sources say the New York State Department of Health has chosen not to seek proposals for the contract now held, for all intents and purposes, by Timothy J. Feeney. If correct, Mr. Feeney’s contractual relationship with the DOH, which made him the director of a project that was arguably the most powerful influence over the implementation of New York’s Traumatic Brain Injury Waiver, ended on September 30.

While the Feeney era may be over now, there is concern the DOH will send out requests for proposals and the company awarded the contract will turn around and hire Mr. Feeney. This advocate would urge the DOH to send out a request for proposals because Waiver Providers and those receiving services from these providers deserve a highly trained team of experts to turn to for support and guidance. However, this time I would urge the DOH to set a higher bar in its proposal request and make sure that those involved in the project are truly qualified and represent the spectrum of experience best equipped for the job: neuropsychologists, family members, survivors and so on.

For 15 years Mr. Feeney misrepresented his credentials to brain injury survivors, their families and waiver providers. He claimed he had a masters then a PHD  when, in fact, he had neither. In print publications and on the net he falsely refers to himself as Dr. Feeney or Timothy J. Feeney, PhD.  His “degrees” were issued by Greenwich University, a diploma mill that was located in Hawaii and California in the 1990s before moving its operation to Norfolk Island off the coast of Australia in 1998. Greenwich University, not to be confused with the prestigious University of Greenwich in England, graces numerous diploma mill lists on the net. It closed its doors in 2003.

However, even though his false credentials have been thoroughly exposed and documented, it appears shame and conscience have little impact in Mr. Feeney’s decision making. Last week I gave a speech for St. Lawrence NYSARC in Canton, New York (NYSARC, by the way, is one of the shining stars in healthcare from where I sit). My speech was in the morning. Mr. Feeney gave a speech that afternoon. When I opened the program I saw it;  he was listed as Timothy J. Feeney PhD and, in several places was referenced as Dr. Feeney. Some people never learn.

Last week I received two letters pertaining to this situation. One came from the Office of the Medicaid Inspector General. They have referred the Feeney matter to Dr. Richard Daines, the New York State Health Commissioner, for investigation. The second was from New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office. They too are carefully considering the matter.

And the beat goes on.

Silence from New York’s DOH

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A letter to a DOH official asking her to investigate how several million dollars of state taxpayer money has been paid to a project run by New York State contract employee Timothy J. Feeney who does not have the credentials he says he has has been met with silence.

A July 25 letter to Patricia Greene Gumson of the New York State Department Health has gotten no response. The letter, copied to others in and out of the DOH, asked Ms. Gumson to investigate how it was that Timothy J. Feeney received three five-year contracts with the DOH despite the fact he misrepresented his credentials. Was there a vetting process and, if so, what was it? It is critically important for the readers of this blog to avoid villainizing the DOH as a whole. There are quite a few honorable people working there and straightening things out while dealing with the ineffable web of bureaucracy is no easy task.

However, Mr. Feeney himself indicates that some in the DOH knew about the problems with his credentials. According to unsolicited e-mail this year to readers of my blog, some in the DOH knew Mr. Feeney did not have the college degrees he claims to have. In his e-mail, Mr. Feeney said, “The Department of Health, the state office responsible for the Neurobehavioral Resource Project, is well aware of my educational history, the source of my (college) degrees.”

For nearly 15 years now Mr. Feeney has headed up the Neurobehavioral Resource Project for New York State’s Traumatic Brain Injury Waiver. The Project is arguably the most powerful influence on the waiver across the state. There can be no argument  that the TBI Waiver is a blessing to the state and desperately needed as it affords many with brain injuries to live in the community. However, there can also be no argument that survivors of brain injury, their families and other loved ones, along with the hard working companies that provide waiver services across the state have a right to expect people to be who they say they are.

As readers of this blog already know, Mr. Feeney claims to have a PhD and Masters degree when he has neither one. The letter also asked Ms. Gumson to look into how it was that none of the three contracts that some might see as jerry-rigged didn’t require the person heading up the Neurobehavioral Project to even have a master’s degree.

In short, Mr. Feeney’s degrees were received from Greenwich University, a diploma mill located in Hawaii and California in the 1990s before moving its operation to Norfolk Island off the coast of Australia. Degrees from Greenwich have never been recognized as valid in the Australian mainland and have never been recognized as valid anywhere in the United States of America. Greenwich, not to be confused with the prestigious University of Greenwich in England, closed its doors in 2003.

Brain injury survivors, the families and other loved ones as well as waiver providers across the state deserve answers. Here are some but not all the questions that ought to be answered.

How productive has the Neurobehavioral Project been?

  • Are referrals to the project responded to, completed, and followed up in a timely manner?
  • How many admission holds were placed on Waiver Providers across the state at the direction of Mr. Feeney? 
  • How many survivors were tossed off the waiver by Mr. Feeney?
  • What has Mr. Feeney and the Project’s impact been on Medicaid dollars?
  • How many Medicaid dollars were spent based on the reasonable belief that Mr. Feeney was Dr. Feeney?
  • Would any Medicaid dollars been saved had Mr. Feeney not represented himself as Dr. Feeney?

Another letter to a DOH official way up the ladder is on its way and has been copied to a wide range of people. I have faith that the DOH will do the right thing. Mr. Feeney’s contract expires the 30th of this month. Were it to be renewed, or were some maneuver like awarding the contract to a company who would then hand leadership over to Mr. Feeney to happen, more folks would need to be taken to task.

It is hard enough living life with a brain injury, it is hard enough adjusting to the reality that a loved one has a brain injury, and it is no easy task providing quality services to those who live with a brain injury for providers who try to keep their companies afloat despite low reimbursement rates. To manage all these challenges only to find out one of the most influential entities in the state is not who they say they are is not only unjust, it’s immoral.

It’s Nothing Personal

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It seems some think my exposing a contract employee with the New York State Department of Health (DOH) for not having the college degrees he says  he has is something personal on my part. Wrong. Defining my action as something personal is a well-worn way of derailing advocates in the first place. Since the facts work against you, let’s say the advocate is on some personal vendetta and, if not a personal vendetta, off their rocker.

I am not off my rocker, at least not today (smile folks, there is nearly always room for humor), but my actions regarding Timothy J. Feeney are nothing personal.  In fact, it would be interesting to learn what, specifically, makes some think it is personal.  In other words, say it out loud folks, so we can all hear. Don’t be shy.

The facts of the matter are rather straightforward. Timothy J. Feeney presents himself as Dr. Feeney or Timothy J. Feeney PhD. He is neither. By his own admission, both his masters and his doctorate were issued by the now defunct Greenwich University, not to be confused with the prestigious University of Greenwich in England. Greenwich University was a non-accredited school, a diploma mill, that operated out of California and Hawaii in the 1990s before moving to Norfolk Island off the coast of Australia in 1998. Greenwich degrees are not recognized as valid anywhere in the United States, much less planet earth. Greenwich closed its doors in 2003.

Now to the question of why should this be a concern to all New Yorkers. First and foremost, when you are receiving health care in any form, you have a right to assume those providing the care are who they say they are. Moreover, if someone is going to make his or her living off of hard-earned taxpayer dollars, taxpayers have a right to assume they are who they say they are. This is not the case when it comes to Mr. Feeney. To make matters even worse, Mr. Feeney, in an unsolicited e-mail to readers of one of my blogs, said the DOH knew all along about the source of his bogus degrees.

Mr. Feeney is nearing the end of his third five-year contract with the state’s DOH as head of the Neurobehavioral Project which is arguably the most powerful influence over the implementation of the state’s Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Medicaid Waiver Program, in itself, a laudable presence.  The waiver provides services to brain injury survivors living in the community. However, it is anyone’s guess how many health care providers have had their doors closed by Mr. Feeney or had their ability to admit people into their program put on hold by Mr. Feeney and his staff. Moreover, one must ask how many survivors of brain injury have been denied waiver services or discharged from waiver services under the direction of Mr. Feeney, all under the pretense that he is, in fact, Dr. Feeney or, Timothy J. Feeney, PhD. Can you imagine being the mother or father of a child with brain injury and you acquiesce to Mr. Feeney’s directives only to find out later he misrepresented himself to you?

Then, of course, we come to the question of state taxpayer dollars. Several million dollars in state tax dollars have been earmarked for Mr. Feeney and his small staff over the years. His last contract alone provided for nearly $2 million in state tax dollars for salary and expenses.

Recently I sent a letter to DOH employee Patricia Greene-Gumson who, along with DOH employee Bruce Rosen, have been the two DOH employees closest to Mr. Feeney over the years, asking her to investigate the situation and to investigate why none of Mr. Feeney’s contracts require the head of the Neurobehavioral Project to have so much as a masters degree,  a fact that would lead some to suspect the contract of being jerry-rigged.  The letter was copied to Deputy DOH Commissioner Mark Kissinger, Ms. Gumson’s supervisor, and the Inspector General.

Feeney’s contract expires this September 30th. My hope is the DOH will not make the same mistake four contracts in a row.

Here’s the thing. When you live with a brain injury, as I do, or you are the mother or father of someone with a brain injury, or the husband or wife or sister or brother of someone with a brain injury, you have a right to expect those who are there to help you to be who they say they are. Anything short of that is unacceptable.

 

Living With Brain Injury – Part V: Where Are the Employees?

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It would be interesting to learn how many people living with brain injuries are in management positions  in the companies providing services to people with brain injuries living in the community. Not many. I can think of one provider that has an individual with a brain injury in a management slot.

The last company I was affiliated with was the Belvedere Brain Injury Program in Albany, New York, and, sadly, in Syracuse too. In the end, not a pleasant experience. Once their substance abuse program got underway and a plethora of survivors began to complain they were being denied their right to choice, I began advocating for them. I was soon told to leave.  I have no reason to believe conditions have changed and  no one running the show  has a brain injury. But this affront aside, the larger picture begs the question, how many people with brain injuries are in management positions in companies like Belvedere? Given that the answer is hardly any, the next question is,Why not?

Is one of the reasons why not may be that many still cling to the belief that those who live with brain injuries can’t do the work? Not so. Bob Woodruff, as good and decent a man as God ever created, lives with a brain injury and is back at ABC News dazzling in his work as always. Is another reason that some companies know that someone with a brain injury might not take kindly to the way survivors are treated by the company?  It’s kind of like creating a group of companies to provide services for veterans and not having any veterans on staff.

Keep in mind, there is such a thing as warehousing in some community-based programs.

Wouldn’t you think that any company providing services to people living with brain injuries would work hard to  get  people with brain injuries on staff because, deep breath now, they might be well suited to tell you what it is like living with a brain injury and thus help you design a more effective program?

Perhaps I’m not the one to ask. After all, I have a brain injury.

Living With Brain Injury – Part IV: Those Around Us

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When you face the challenge of a brain injury in life, there are several things you should be able to count, from those who love you and from those whose job it is to help you manage the injury: respect, equality, dignity, honesty and the best treatment available. What you do not deserve is disrespect, condescension, dehumanization, and dishonesty. Tragically, there is far too much of the latter.

Let me say at the outset that there a lot of things my state, New York, has right. It has a TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) waiver, a form of medicaid reimbursement that provides services so some with brain injuries can live in the community and, in some instances, return to living in the community. There is no question that more people with brain injuries are living in the community as a result of the waiver.

However, there are problems, and while the problems might understandably call for finger pointing, finger pointing rarely gets us anywhere. The waiver is overseen by the New York State Department of Health. The TBI Waiver manual is a nice document, it says the person with the brain injury is the person who drives their treatment plan, or service plan as it is called in waiver parlance. Sometimes this happens, sometimes it does not. But the waiver is well thought out on this front.

What appears to be lacking in the waiver manual are regulations. There are guidelines for sure, but they are accompanied by a paucity of regulations, and that is troubling.

One thing I am sure of is this. For any therapeutic environment to be as effective as possible, it needs to be an emotionally, spiritually and physically safe place for the person getting the care. Key to this safety is, among other things, honesty. That the people who treat you or influence your treatment or the rules governing your treatment are who they say they are.

One problematic case that does call for finger pointing is the case of Timothy J. Feeney. Feeney has been a contract employee with the NY DOH for on or about 15 years and continues to refer to himself as Dr. Timothy J. Feeney when he is nothing of the sort. By his own admission, both his PhD and his Master’s Degree were obtained from Greenwich University, a non-accredited school that enriches countless diploma mill lists on and, I would imagine, off the web. On a resume of his provided to this writer by the state, Feeney openly lists Greenwich University. Greenwich U was a diploma mill that operated out of California and Hawaii until 1998 when it moved to Norfolk Island off the coast of Australia. It closed its doors and 2003. There is an Australian Government Alert available on the web that makes it clear Greenwich was not a recognized university in that country.

However, do not be quick to villainize the NY DOH in its entirety. Feeney’s contracts, also provided to this writer by the state, do not require he have any degree to head the neurobehavioral project for the DOH. One has to wonder who wrote the contracts? It is, I think, reasonable to assume that there are those in the DOH who are good and honest people who may inherited this hot potato.

The bottom line is this. Learning how to manage daily life when you live with a brain injury is hard enough. It becomes even harder when people aren’t honest with us. Any value they may actually have is entirely undermined once their dishonesty comes to light.