The state Department of Jobs and Family Services, which administered the home health care program designed to care for people such as Makayla, is looking for ways to shore up its oversight.
The private company paid to administer the program is in danger of losing a multimillion dollar contract. A local home health care provider, coincidentally, was before a hearing judge on the day Angela Norman was sentenced in an effort to save its Medicaid contracts.
Also both state and federal authorities have launched investigations into possible Medicaid fraud that could bring more charges against some of those involved.
In court Thursday, there was no one to speak for Makayla when her mother was sentenced for involuntary manslaughter.
No family sat in the courtroom. There was no statement from the family, just the words of Montgomery County Assistant Prosector Tracey Ballard-Tangeman.
“There is nobody for (Makayla). She was on an island, an island with people who were there to help her. They failed her, then assisted in a cover-up,” Ballard-Tangeman said.
Upon her death March 1, 2011, Makayla weighed 28 pounds, her body covered with filth and open bedsores, her hair and eyebrows infested with lice, her diaper and colon filled with feces. Stricken with cerebal palsy, Makayla could neither speak, move, nor feed herself.
“Makayla shouldn’t have suffered ... she couldn’t get help for herself,” Common Pleas Judge Mary Katherine Huffman said to Angela Norman. “You could have picked up the phone.”
Police and prosecutors claim Makayla was abandoned by her nurse, the nurse supervising Makayla’s care and the nurse/social worker in charge of overseeing the taxpayer-fund program that kept Makayla with her family; all with the consent of her mother.
Angela Norman pleaded guilty last month to involuntary manslaughter, felony child endangering and misdemeanor child endangering — a charge involving Makayla’s now 18-year-old sister.
Huffman sentenced Angela Norman to nine years on the involuntary manslaughter, three years on the felony child endangering and six months — credited with time served — on the misdemeanor. The charges were merged for a total of nine years. The maximum Huffman could have ordered was 10 years in prison.
The care
Makayla was cared for at home under a program intended to keep her safe with her family rather than in a more expensive nursing home, saving taxpayers money.
A Dayton Daily News investigation found Makayla was caught in an extensive bureaucracy where officials say fraud is a massive and growing problem, and where regulators are swamped with allegations each year. Government officials say they’re reviewing their systems to determine how she got lost. “We are in the process of talking with the agency, ODJFS,” Attorney General Mike DeWine said Thursday.
The Montgomery County Coroner ruled Makayla’s death a homicide by reason of medical and nutritional neglect.
The nurses
Mollie E. Parsons, 42, of Dayton, a licensed practical nurse who was hired by Exclusive Home Health Care of Dayton to care for Makayla eight hours a day, six days a week, is charged with involuntary manslaughter; failing to provide for a functionally impaired person, a fourth-degree felony, and a misdemeanor count of tampering with records.
Parsons remains in the jail on $250,000 bond, awaiting an Aug. 14 trial.
Kathryn Williams, 42, of Englewood was hired by Exclusive to monitor and supervise the care provided by Parsons. She is charged with failing to provide for a functionally impaired person and a misdemeanor count of failing to report child abuse or neglect.
Mary K. Kilby, 63, of Miamisburg was a Care-Star employee responsible for seeing Makayla continued to qualify for the state-administered Medicaid program, and that Makayla was getting the taxpayer-funded care. Kilby also is charged with failing to provide for a functionally impaired person and a misdemeanor count of failing to report child abuse or neglect. Williams and Kilby are free on $10,000 bond awaiting their June 13 trials.
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