Grants Pass-based Rever Grand is headquartered in the Parkway Village at F Street and the Grants Pass Parkway.

Email sent to Jackson County HHS employees “Rever Grand has just now been indicted for Medicaid Fraud beyond the two individuals. Suspension of payments are now legally likely via DOJ — but a transition period is allowable and likely 90 days long to continue payments while all individuals served transition to a new Agency. A letter from ODDS for all affected is coming out and available by next week of Sept. 16. ODDS wants (DD case managers) to immediately reach out to all affected individuals prior to the official letter. IMPORTANT: we cannot legally mention the legal action of halting Medicaid payments only that we need to transition folks to a new CLS Agency. (Redacted names): please have an all In Home DDCM meeting ASAP to assure all DDCMs are communicating in a consistent manner. For example, we can really only state: ‘The State has directed us to offer Choice Counseling in order to transition any RG served individual.’ FYI, RG may be telling individuals that they don’t have to transition as they believe they’ll legally ‘win.’ An individual can choose to remain with RG, but once payments are halted the POC will be closed, and RG will not receive any payments from the ODDS system. If any request to turn these into a ‘General Fund Request’ (vs Medicaid) come in, that’s a solid No, won’t happen. ODDS will do what they can to assist DSPs quickly switch to a new CLS Provider…. though little detail on just how they will.”

Some 8,000 Direct Support Professionals — caregivers for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities — across Oregon, including in Jackson County, could soon be left in a lurch without monthly payments for providing care.

County Developmental Disability Services officials, after a meeting with state officials, directed caseworkers Thursday to transition existing providers employed by Rever Grand, the state’s largest DSP provider, to a new agency amid an ongoing case of alleged Medicaid fraud.

Rever Grand, a Grants Pass-based agency, faces 12 counts of making a false claim for health care payment.

The case was filed by the Oregon Department of Justice in Josephine County courts Aug. 16.

The agency’s founders, a husband-wife duo who live near Rogue River, were indicted June 12.

Raymond Gilbert Parenteau faces 21 felony counts — 12 counts of making a false claim for health care payment, nine counts of aggravated first-degree theft — while his wife, Jolene Marie Sesso, faces 22 felony counts that include two counts of perjury, 12 counts of making a false claim for health care payment and eight counts of aggravated first-degree theft.

All three are set for a hearing status check at 9 a.m. Sept. 26.

The Rogue Valley Times’ calls to Rever Grand on Friday were not returned.

An employee confirmed that hiring for caregivers in Jackson and Josephine counties was currently “on pause.”

According to recent coverage by Willamette Week, payments to Rever Grand from the state rose from nearly $60 million in 2021 to more than $110 million in the first 10 months of 2023.

The company was by far the biggest recipient of the nearly $1 billion the state paid out to community living service agencies over that period.

A financial audit of Rever Grand’s business obtained by Willamette Week shows the company paid out nearly $16 million to its owners in 2022, although Parenteau stepped down as CEO of Rever Grand in 2019 and received a $1.1-million severance package, according to the audit submitted to state regulators.

Former Rever Grand employees told Willamette Week that Parenteau remained closely involved in the company’s operations.

Two Jackson County employees, who asked not to be identified, confirmed to the Times on Thursday that an email had been sent by county officials.

The email, obtained by the Times, was directed to a county Health and Human Services email group and marked “urgent.”

The email states that Rever Grand was “just now” indicted on additional Medicaid fraud charges “beyond the two individuals,” Parenteau and Sesso. It warns that a suspension of payments is now “legally likely via DOJ,” though a likely transition period of 90 days is allowable “while all individuals served transition to a new agency.”

The email goes on to direct county DD caseworkers to “reach out to all affected individuals prior to” an official letter — scheduled to be sent sometime this week — from the state Department of Human Services’ Office of Developmental Disabilities Services.

“We cannot legally mention the legal action of halting Medicaid payments only that we need to transition folks to a new (community living support) agency,” the county HHS email states.

Caseworkers were asked to communicate in a consistent manner and offer “Choice Counseling” to help individuals select a new agency from which to receive care.

“FYI, (Rever Grand) may be telling individuals that they don’t have to transition as they believe they’ll legally ‘win.’ An individual can choose to remain with (Rever Grand), but once payments are halted the (plan of care) will be closed and (Rever Grand) will not receive any payments from the ODDS system. If any request to turn these into a “General Fund Request” (vs Medicaid) come in, that’s a solid No, won’t happen,” the email states.

Contacted by the Times on Friday, Rick Hammel, Jackson County’s Developmental Disability Services director, said he was unable to comment on the email or specific details sent to employees.

“Any time some unforeseen situation occurs, we would do all we could to make sure, for the people we serve and their direct support providers, that we could transition both,” Hammel said.

“The DSPs are usually friends or related to the people they serve but, in any given situation, we would always put the individual that we serve first. If we’re putting them first, then we also have to put the DSPs first. Globally, our focus isn’t related to any one agency but about making sure the continuum of care is just that — continuous.”

Hammel did not have an estimate of the number of individuals served as clients of Rever Grand, but said it was “more than 100.”

Contacted about pending new charges filed in the case, state justice department officials were not immediately able to provide a comment to the Times.

Josephine County District Attorney Joshua Eastman, in an email to the Times on Friday, referred all questions pertaining to the case against Rever Grand, Parenteau and Sesso to Oregon DOJ officials.

Eastman said the state DOJ had been assigned to the case “as specially appointed Deputy District Attorney.”

“Rever Grand has just now been indicted for Medicaid Fraud beyond the two individuals. Suspension of payments are now legally likely via DOJ — but a transition period is allowable and likely 90 days long to continue payments while all individuals served transition to a new Agency.

A letter from ODDS for all affected is coming out and available by next week of Sept. 16.

ODDS wants (DD case managers) to immediately reach out to all affected individuals prior to the official letter. IMPORTANT: we cannot legally mention the legal action of halting Medicaid payments only that we need to transition folks to a new CLS Agency.

(Redacted names): please have an all In Home DDCM meeting ASAP to assure all DDCMs are communicating in a consistent manner. For example, we can really only state:

‘The State has directed us to offer Choice Counseling in order to transition any RG served individual.’

FYI, RG may be telling individuals that they don’t have to transition as they believe they’ll legally ‘win.’ An individual can choose to remain with RG, but once payments are halted the POC will be closed, and RG will not receive any payments from the ODDS system. If any request to turn these into a ‘General Fund Request’ (vs Medicaid) come in, that’s a solid No, won’t happen.

ODDS will do what they can to assist DSPs quickly switch to a new CLS Provider…. though little detail on just how they will.”