District and ICF/IDD Provider Agree to Settle Court Action

Washington, DC—Today, Attorney General Peter J. Nickles and David W. Wilmot, Chairman and President of Individual Development, Inc. (IDI), jointly announced that both parties came to the table and have agreed to settle the recent court action brought by the District of Columbia in the D.C. Superior Court to have a court-appointed receiver take over two IDI-operated group homes for persons with intellectual disability.  

IDI, a local nonprofit corporation, operates eleven intermediate care facilities for persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities (ICF/IDD) in the District, and presently serves 69 individuals with varying degrees of intellectual, physical and developmental disabilities.  The District’s court action, filed on October 5th, had asked the Superior Court to appoint a receiver to take control of IDI’s ICF/IDD homes located at 53rd Street, SE, and Edson Place, NE.  The settlement agreement is written as a consent court order to be signed by the judge; applies to all eleven of the IDI-operated ICF/IDD homes; and subjects IDI for each of its homes to plans of correction and in-service training to correct the alleged deficient practices, state monitoring to oversee implementation, monetary penalties to ensure timely and thorough compliance, and automatic termination of its Medicaid provider agreements if deficiencies recur.

In announcing the settlement, Attorney General Nickles stated that, “IDI and its leadership came to the table with the District and hammered out a settlement agreement that requires IDI to improve performance or face severe sanctions, including loss of certification and licensure.  I want to compliment IDI and its board of directors – David W. Wilmot, Chairman and President; Frederick D. Cooke, Jr., IDI’s Vice President; and A. Scott Bolden, IDI’s Secretary and Treasurer – for their tremendous cooperation and constructive engagement over the course of the last three weeks in negotiating a settlement that will serve as a model for improving performance system-wide.  We look forward to working with IDI to fully implement the terms of the settlement agreement.”

On behalf of IDI, Mr. Wilmot stated, “It is in the best interests of the parties to resolve these issues.  The real winners in resolving these issues are the individuals we serve and their families.  The District and IDI will be working closely together to provide the best services to the most fragile individuals in the system.”

The Office of the Attorney General had filed the court action working with the Department on Disability Services, which oversees supports and services to persons with intellectual disabilities; the Department of Health Care Finance, which operates the Medicaid program; and the Department of Health (DOH), which licenses and certifies ICFs/IDD under local law and the Medicaid program.  The court action was based on findings by DOH’s Health Licensing and Regulation Administration (HRLA) that identified a number of deficient practices during recertification surveys, monitoring surveys, and complaint and incident investigations at both of two of the homes since 2007.  Under the settlement agreement, IDI remains in charge of each of the homes but must implement detailed plans of correction and conduct specific competency and values-based staff and nursing training to improve performance.  IDI’s performance under the settlement agreement is overseen by a third-party monitor, agreed to by the parties, which has the ability to impose monetary penalties and automatic loss of licensure and certification for failure to meet performance measures.

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