A lawyer for a prominent southern Oregon disability services and support organization, Rever Grand, says recent indictments accusing its cofounders of health care fraud are unrelated to its operations despite the filings’ mention of the company in multiple locations.
A grand jury in Josephine County indicted Jolene Sesso and Raymond Parenteau in June on multiple charges of allegedly making a false claim for health payments as well as aggravated theft in the first degree.
While the indictments are light on details, they appear to claim that each defendant sought to defraud the Oregon Department of Human Services of more than $350,000 between 2019 and this year. While the firm receives some Medicaid funds, the indictments do not clarify the nature of the funds.
Willamette Week first reported on the case earlier on Aug. 13, quoting a top Service Employees international Union who portrayed the firm as one that appears to “use loopholes to try and scam money off Medicaid.”
Based in Grants Pass, Rever Grand contracts with workers called direct support professionals to provide care and help to people with intellectual or developmental disabilities around the state.
Its management has maintained an aggressive public profile while, in effect, competing with government agencies to grow its business while seemingly taking a skeptical stance toward unions — with one archived Facebook post claiming the company was “born amidst the chaos of an ever-changing landscape of State regulations, budget constraints and poorly conceived union negotiations.”
Attorneys for Sesso and Parenteau declined to comment when contacted by The Lund Report. Both have pleaded not guilty.
“We are not in trouble at all.”
The indictments of Sesso and Parenteau list Rever Grand as a codefendant, but do not clearly describe any company role in the alleged crimes. The indictment of Sesso cites a document listed on behalf of the firm in 2019 indicating she had failed to accurately state the owners of the company
“We are not in trouble at all,” Christopher Culpepper, Rever Grand’s head of marketing, told The Lund Report, when asked about the indictments.
He said Rever Grand is continuing to operate normally and will “remain steadfast to our employees and clients.”
Culpepper referred questions about Sesso and Parenteau’s association with Rever Grand and why the company is included in the indictments to the firm’s attorney.
That attorney, Catherine Schulist of Watkinson Laird Rubenstein PC, told The Lund Report in an email that the indictments have nothing to do with the firm. She asserted that a prosecutor told an attorney for one of Rever Grand’s cofounders that the mention of the firm was in error.
“There is no relationship between the personal indictments of Jolene M. Sesso and Raymond G. Parenteau, and Rever Grand, Inc. (RG),” Schulist wrote. “Sesso and Parenteau were personally indicted on charges brought by the State of Oregon.”
The company’s attorney added that no charges have been filed against Rever Grand, and the alleged crimes “have no relation to the services provided” by the firm. If the prosecutors sought to implicate Rever Grand, they would have filed another indictment naming the company, Schulist added.
Josephine County District Attorney Joshua Eastman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the case, and the Oregon Department of Justice declined to comment. A spokesperson for the Department of Human Services did not comment on the criminal case, but shared a series of regulatory actions taken against the firm in the last five years.
“They are being paid more for doing less and those owners pocket money that was intended to improve the lives of people with (intellectual or developmental disabilities). And entirely funded by taxpayers.”
“Dream big”
Rever Grand, French for “dream big,” was formed in 2013 as a support services agency in southern Oregon that is now licensed to serve clients across the state, according to a 2016 press release.
State records show Parenteau was a co-founder of the company. The most-recent annual report for Rever Grand filed with the Oregon Secretary of State lists Sesso as the president of the company. Records show the two share a home and parent a child together.
Court records indicate the indictment resulted from a state investigation. A state investigator is listed as a witness and Elizabeth Ballard Colgrove, an Oregon Department of Justice attorney overseeing Medicaid fraud, is prosecuting the case as a special appointed deputy district attorney. Such arrangements are typical due to state statutes limiting the Oregon Attorney General’s ability to file charges on its own, requiring it to cooperate with local elected district attorneys instead.
The firm employs direct support professionals, a group that has seen high turnover rates in recent years because of low hourly wages that were made worse by the pandemic.
A 2023 report produced by Oregon Health & Science University researchers found that temporary COVID rate enhancements boosted average hourly wages from $10.75 to $21.60, which they found was still “still considerably lower than those for the Oregon workforce as a whole.”
Researchers wrote that direct support professionals switching between agencies contributed to the instability of the workforce and recommended improving pay and career opportunities.
Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities who live at home can either hire personal support workers directly or go through a community living services agency that provides direct support professionals. The Oregon Department of Human Services oversees certification and licensing of these providers and issues payments to agencies.
Between July 2023 through June 2024, the department paid out $679 million, over half of which came from federal funds, to community living services agencies that provide direct support professionals, according to a spokesperson.
Rever Grand has a robust social media presence and has aggressively marketed itself as a top provider and good employer that pays excellent wages, while seeking to increase its market share. Its website cites hourly wages starting at $24 with the possibility of $26, along with benefits. The company’s website includes text encouraging direct support workers to talk to their clients about switching services to Rever Grand, along with a button on how to do so.
Different kind of provider
Rever Grand is what the state considers a “standard model agency,” meaning it provides more extensive services to clients. That includes transporting them to medical appointments, helping with medications and maintaining a schedule of activities.
Standard model agencies receive significantly higher reimbursements from the state than agencies that provide more basic levels of service, according to Oregon state Sen. Sara Gelser Blouin, a Corvallis Democrat who chairs the Senate Human Services Committee.
She said that as direct support professionals have become more sought after, some agencies advertise higher wages that they can only pay if they are a standard model agency. However, Gelser Blouin said that some do not offer the extensive services. She said that practice is destabilizing for the market because other agencies have trouble recruiting workers and clients do not get the care they need.
“They are being paid more for doing less and those owners pocket money that was intended to improve the lives of people with (intellectual or developmental disabilities),” she said of such companies. “And entirely funded by taxpayers.”
