AUSTIN, Texas — An investigative report from the Office of the City Auditor released Thursday shows Central Texas Allied Health Institute (CTAHI) falsified patient data records and over $1.1 million in financial transactions.
Austin Public Health (APH) contracted CTAHI to provide health services, including administering COVID-19 vaccines. However, during December 2020 and September 2021, the City's auditor says CTAHI misrepresented financial transactions and was improperly paid around $417,000 for COVID-19 vaccines and workforce development.
APH had three contracts with CTAHI: one for COVID-19 vaccines, one for workforce development and one for COVID-19 testing. CTAHI misrepresented expenses of $406,000 in COVID-19 vaccines, to which APH paid $307,000; $110,00 in workforce development, to which APH paid in full; and $604,000 in COVID-19 testing, which APH did not pay.
The City's auditor says one falsified report was about the amount of COVID-19 vaccination supplies CTAHI needed.
"Of those, a single PPE orders for 200,000 syringes, for a contract that asks them to give 3500 vaccinations,” said Brian Molloy, chief of investigations for the City auditor's office.
The City's auditor says CTAHI also claims they vaccinated 1,086 people on June 5, 2021, but reports show they only administered 59 doses that day. Molloy said this information is according to the VAERS forms, a form required by the CDC that documents if someone has an adverse reaction to a vaccine.
The VAERS form also describes the demographic information of the patient, but when the City audit’s office checked to see if any of those 59 patients were in the 1,086 that CTAHI claims they vaccinated, they couldn't find any.
“Not a single VAERS form is a perfect match for the demographic data in their thousand people, so we can't even match and prove that they did the 59 that they have VAERS forms for,” Molloy said.
In a statement made Thursday, CTAHI denied allegations that President Todd Hamilton and Dr. Jereka Thomas-Hockaday intentionally or unintentionally committed fraudulent activity. CTAHI claims that a disgruntled employee did provide false or manipulated documentation to APH, and subsequently quit.
The auditor's office said when it asked CTAHI for that evidence, it found different results.
"They couldn't describe any investigative steps,” Molloy said. “They couldn't even show us one falsified document. They couldn't show us any evidence pointing to anything being falsified or that this individual they're blaming is the person who falsified it."
CTAHI has agreed to reimburse any overpayments and has provided documentation during the investigation.
"In certain ways, they were cooperative,” Molloy said. “They agreed to meet with us. They also supplied us with bank records when we wanted legitimate bank records, not the falsified ones."
APH’s contract with CTAHI has been canceled. The auditor's office says of the $375,000 the group agreed to repay, it only paid about $12,000 so far.
“Almost immediately after the initial payment or two they started missing and they missed all the way through this year,” Molloy said. “I believe they claim they sent a check in February of 2023. That check never arrived, so as of the publishing of this report today, the city never got that check and they are still missing over $68,000 in scheduled payments.”
CTAHI provided the following statement Thursday afternoon:
"CTAHI, President Todd Hamilton, and Dr. Jereka Thomas-Hockaday deny any intentional or unintentional fraudulent activity regarding community service grants received through APH or the City of Austin. CTAHI was approved for operations two weeks before the pandemic shutdown and had to retool to begin classes by August 2020. CTAHI received the APH grant for healthcare worker training September 2021. CTAHI complied with all standards provide to them from APH forms and all requests of information by APH grant managers. APH grant managers verified and approved all student training placements. APH informed CTAHI that APH had improperly approved several students already enrolled, graduated, and/or working in the required healthcare fields of the contract and asked to perform an audit of all the documentation of the grant. When some questions were raised about some of the documents provided to APH a meeting was held and CTAHI agreed to reimburse any overpayments of the grant paid to CTAHI per the four corners of the contract, provided on the spot access to all documentation regarding the contract, and began an internal investigation. CTAHI discovered that a disgruntled employee in President Hamilton’s office did provide false or manipulated documentation to APH at first request and subsequently quit. The City Auditors report mischaracterizes several things and blatantly lies about others. CTAHI has other public and private grant funders that have disclosed to CTAHI that in spite of the denial, they were contacted by the City Auditors Office. CTAHI has operated under those public and private grants without incident. CTAHI recently underwent an audit of a similarly situated County grant it operates under which found no issues. A prominent public official disclosed in CTAHI that CARES Act funding given to the City of Austin was so egregiously mishandled that it would take up to 15 years to pay it back. It is CTAHI belief that the city is looking to find every way they can to squeeze money out of their contractors to pay it back. Dr. Jereka Thomas-Hockaday gives the following statement.
"CTAHI volunteered to assist with COVID response because we saw the people of the Eastern Crescent dying before our very eyes and our local government was grossly ill prepared to serve those who needed them the most. This process was not only frustrating but has caused irreparable damage to our name and reputation. But this is a familiar cadence of the city attempting to ruin the lives and livelihoods of those without the financially ability to fight back to absolve themselves of admitting mistakes. There is a long-documented history of the City of Austin having difficulties working with small minority contractors and then blaming the failures in execution on the contractors themselves. This is why so many minority companies and non-profits will not work with them. This is also why people of color do not trust our local government. I was told by numerous peers who had worked with the city before to not take this contract, but I naively thought I could make a difference because of the pandemic. I will never do business with the City of Austin ever again," Dr. Jereka Thomas-Hockaday said.