Lebanon, Ind.-based Piece by Piece Autism will shut down by May 15 after Indiana officials said they would bar the provider from billing Medicaid, The Wall Street Journal reported April 1.
The state informed the company it would be cut off from Medicaid within 60 days, citing alleged abuse of the taxpayer-funded program. Most of the provider’s patients were covered by Medicaid, putting its operations at risk, according to the report, which cited an email from Piece by Piece’s human resources to employees.
The company received $340,000 in Medicaid payments per patient in 2023 — the highest level nationally — and charged rates that allowed it to collect as much as $640 an hour for services, according to the Journal. From 2019 to 2023, Indiana paid the provider $58 million for autism therapy services.
Operations of its seven centers will be transferred to Indianapolis-based Applied Behavior Center for Autism, which operates 14 centers in the state. The company reported about $91,000 in Medicaid payments per patient for 123 children in 2023. It also agreed to pay a $2 million settlement with the Justice Department in 2023 related to fraudulent billing allegations.
The closure comes as Indiana overhauls autism therapy reimbursement. State Medicaid spending on the therapy reached $2.2 billion in 2023, up from $660 million four years earlier, according to the report.
Becker’s reached out to Piece by Piece for comment and will update this story if more information becomes available.
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