A Macomb County Court juvenile court referee has been suspended with pay while under investigation for possible health insurance fraud.
John J. Kennedy was placed on indefinite administrative leave Jan. 3 while county officials investigate whether his stepson may be improperly collecting health insurance benefits through Kennedy’s county-paid health plan. His stepson may have health insurance available to him through a job with a health system.
http://liarcatchers.com/insurance_fraud.html
“He’s been placed on paid administrative leave so we can do an investigation into possible misconduct,” Macomb County Chief Judge David Viviano said Friday. “I don’t want to get into why or where it goes from here.”
Viviano would not reveal the exact nature of the investigation or whether another agency may be involved in the probe.
He said court officials are working with officials from the county Human Resources Department.
Kennedy could not be reached for comment.
He is one of six referees, quasi judges, in Macomb who preside over juvenile delinquency and child abuse and neglect cases while serving under family/juvenile judges. He earns a salary between $63,450 and $79,313.
Referees must operate within the “judicial canons” that regulate judges’ conduct, according to the Michigan Referees Association’s website.
Human Resources Director Eric Herppich could not be reached for comment Friday.
Doug Fouty, who retired a year ago as the No. 2 official under Herppich, said from his home Friday it is illegal under President Obama’s health care law for a dependent to remain on a another person’s health care policy when he or she can have a policy under his or her employer.
The investigation comes about three years after county officials began improving their monitoring of employees’ benefits on the heels of the case of ex-employee Jackie Youhanian, who illicitly collected $227,000 in county health benefits for eight years after she quit in 1999. She pleaded guilty to four counts of health care fraud and was sentenced in August 2008 by David Viviano to five years probation and restitution.
The incident was the “impetus” for an audit by an outside agency in December 2009, Fouty said.
“After the audit in 2009 and we laid down the law, there wasn’t a soul who missed any deadlines,” he said. “The employees were scared to death.”
Also, in September 2010, Fouty said he would turn over to a law enforcement agency any circumstance in which a county employee failed to notify the county of a change in dependents in his or her health care beneficiaries within 30 days.
Kennedy has been a referee for eight years and lawyer since 1994. About three years ago, he moved from presiding over the initial stage of juvenile delinquency cases at the county youth home at North Rose and Dunham roads in outer Mount Clemens to handling cases under a judge in the Macomb Circuit Court building in downtown Mount Clemens.
He had been serving under Judge Mark Switalski but coincidentally moved to serve under Matthew Switalski the day before he was suspended. The Switalski brothers in the new year switched their roles, with Matthew becoming a family/juvenile judge and Mark presiding over criminal and civil cases.
Kennedy was among four juvenile court officials commended in March 2011 by the Resolution Center in Mount Clemens for their efforts in the juvenile court mediation program.
Kennedy in March 2007 was involved in the high-profile Stephen Grant case. He awarded temporary custody of Stephen and the late Tara Grant’s children to Tara’s sister, Alicia Standerfer, after Stephen Grant was arrested for killing Tara in February 2007 in their Washington Township home. He was subsequently convicted of second-degree murde
