A controversial whistle-blowing investigator for the state Office of Medicaid Inspector General has been reinstated by a labor arbitrator who says higher-ups at the agency placed him on paid suspension in 2012, and then forgot about him.
A few months after Harvey Brody inquired about his status in 2015, OMIG contended he had violated health privacy laws regarding Medicaid recipients and stripped his salary as a preliminary move to terminating him.
But that appears to be as far as the state went.
He was also a party to a whistleblower lawsuit that contended various Medicaid providers were getting paid for services they never rendered. The suit didn’t progress very far, however and has essentially foundered.
Brody was also featured in a 2012 Times Union story that cited several then current or retired OMIG employees who the agency was adrift under director James Cox, who departed in late 2014.
Source: State employee was suspended and then forgotten, says arbitrator – Times Union