N.Y. Brothers Reap Medicaid Windfall Running Disabled-Care Group

New York state’s largest nonprofit network of homes for people with developmental disabilities collected more than $1-billion from Medicaid in the past decade and paid salaries in the $1-million range to the two siblings who run it, The New York Times writes.

Joel Levy was paid more than $1-million and his brother, Philip, $916,647 as heads of the Young Adult Institute Network in 2009, the most recent year for which financial information was available. Both have since left their daily roles with the organization, with Philip Levy resigning as chief executive in late June.

According to a Times analysis of financial records, the brothers also passed the cost of luxury cars, their children’s college tuition, and an apartment for Philip Levy’s daughter to the organization, which operates homes with a collective 700 beds as well as day programs, a school, and other services for people with cerebral palsy, autism, and other conditions.

The Times says the brothers and their organization are widely admired in the field for the quality and range of their programs but that New York–which will get $10-billion from Medicaid this year to care for the developmentally disabled, far more than any other state–rarely scrutinizes spending by the groups that receive money from the government program.