ACCION AMERICA: AG TO REVIEW BISD'S $40 MILLION INSURANCE CONTRACT

By Juan Montoya

The Hispanic advocacy group Acción America said it has received word from Texas State Attorney General Greg Abbot that the concerns about potential fraud and corruption in the Brownsville Independent School District are under review by its criminal division.
In a letter to the group, Abbot said that Acción American's concerns about possible Medicaid fraud were outside the department's purview as the matter pertains to federal benefits. However, the complaint pertaining to the BISD's award of a $40 million health insurance contract to Mutual Assurance Administrators of Oklahoma is included among the issues that the division attorneys will review.
AA has said it has "internal documents that can also show potential criminal conversion of the Healthsmart Contract to (MMA). Records will show that Board Member Rick Zayas along with Joe Colunga who have nexus with Johnny Cavazos may have violated laws that led to the awarding of (the contract with) , with annual fees of 3 million per year."
Additionally, AA states that "a report by an Independent Consultant (Looney Report) was eventually found to be fraudulent, defective and incorrect, BISD has ordered an audit on this report." The advocacy group also wrote Abbot that "there is illegal billing for Due Process Mediations within BISD, costing taxpayers $12,000 per mediation, that lawyers for BISD have instructed that psychology reports be diluted, in other words falsified."
AA also told Abbot that it has parents willing to testify that "board member Joe Colunga has received special favors from Special Needs including private transportation, support funds, extra nurses, college assistance and employment for his wife. Mr. Colunga's son was in the Special Needs Program of BISD until just two weeks ago, he is 25 years old."
Carlos Quintanilla, director of AA, said his group has already consulted with attorneys who have expressed their willingness to file a class-action lawsuit against the district on behalf of Special Needs students who have been misdiagnosed by district psychologists that district administrators and legal representatives knew were not qualified to diagnose them.
Additionally, Quintanilla alleges that BISD legal representatives had advised the district that the tests were "legally indefensible," and that the district had continued to allow the administering of the diagnoses.