Lawsuits target Auburn health agency
Auburn mental health referral agency Possibilities Counseling, which will shut down this month following state inspections that revealed deficiencies, is facing two lawsuits on charges of failing to pay its 500-plus therapists a collective $3 million in wages.
Law firm Preti Flaherty yesterday filed a lawsuit in Cumberland County Superior Court on behalf of two providers for Possibilities Counseling, and will seek class action status and consideration by Maine's Business and Consumer Court, according to the Sun Journal. Other details about the lawsuit were not available. Another Portland law firm, Taylor, McCormack & Frame, has filed to be an intervener in a pending lawsuit against the company by Affiliate Funding, which until August provided Possibilities Counseling with payroll funds as the company awaited MaineCare reimbursements from the state. Affiliate Funding is suing for an unspecified amount in damages.
Attorney Adam Taylor is representing 56 social service workers, and told the paper he plans to seek collective class action status if the intervener motion is granted. According to Taylor, more than 500 therapists and case managers are owed more than $3 million, with the highest amount owed to one worker being $20,000.
John Geismar, an attorney for Possibilities Counseling President Wendy Bergeron, told the paper the issue with Affiliate Funding was "a business arrangement that's gone horribly wrong and the clinicians are stuck in the middle."
Possibilities Counseling earlier this month filed a 30-day closure notice with the state Department of Health and Human Services after the state downgraded its license to conditional and gave it a year to rectify deficiencies, which included failure to pay therapists and properly secure patient records. In August, 16 of the agency's 18 staff members walked off the job.
Go to the article from the Sun Journal >>
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