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Medicaid overpaid Chattanooga’s Orange Grove Center by nearly $200,000, state audit finds

Staff photo by Doug Strickland / The Norton J. Kent Habilitation Center on Orange Grove Center's campus is seen on Thursday, May 4, 2017, in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Staff photo by Doug Strickland / The Norton J. Kent Habilitation Center on Orange Grove Center's campus is seen on Thursday, May 4, 2017, in Chattanooga, Tenn.

NASHVILLE – A new Tennessee comptroller’s audit contains eight findings with regard to Medicaid charges and other issues at Orange Grove Center, the nearly 70-year-old nonprofit Chattanooga organization that serves adults and children with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Auditors estimate as a result, the state’s Medicaid program overpaid the facility by $197,282 from Oct. 1, 2020, through Sept. 30, 2021. The result is the center will see lower Medicaid reimbursements for a time to repay the state’s Medicaid program.

Officials involved with the examination told the Times Free Press that the findings – the main ones include questions about allowable expenses, under-reporting of Medicaid days for clients and the resulting impact on daily reimbursement rates – aren’t unusual.

No allegations of intentional wrongdoing were made by auditors.

“To be frank with you, these are common findings in long-term care facilities,” Regina Robinson, an accountant who was manager of the audit, told the Times Free Press in a telephone interview Thursday. “There was nothing particularly unusual here that you don’t find in other facilities.”