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 suspension in 2012 and forgot about him. That was until 2015 when Harvey Brody inquired about his status. Later that year they moved him from being on paid suspension to unpaid suspension, contending he violated health privacy laws regarding Medicaid recipients.

But that appears to be as far as the state went.

“It did nothing to further investigate; its referral to the appropriate State or Federal agencies was minimal at best,” union-management arbitrator Ira Lobel said in his Aug 11 decision reinstating Brody with pay (an estimated $100,000 when one adds in the longevity bonuses, unused sick and vacation as well as professional training time on top of his roughly $65,000 salary).

“Based on the testimony, it appears OMIG simply placed Brody on leave and forgot about him.”

Brody said he’s ready to head back to work using various data sets to ferret out Medicaid fraud, but as of Tuesday, he hadn’t heard back from his employer. “I’m basically staying home between 9 and 5 and am ready to work.”

State government, as most who work there know, is rife with stories of workers who somehow ran afoul of management and are sidelined, sometimes for years with little or even no work to perform. And the Times Union over the years has documented several such cases.

Brody’s case is a bit unique due to the actual suspension and lack of follow up.

It’s unusual for suspensions to drag on for so long, since the state’s contract with Brody’s union, the Public Employees Federation, calls for resolution in a year, said Usher Piller, another state employee who was the leader of his PEF division or unit.

“The level of proof that was offered against Mr. Brody was minuscule,” added Michael Sussman, an Orange County lawyer who represented him.

Additionally, Brody has supporters who say he was actually making contributions and digging out over-payments, despite his somewhat quirky personality which can lead to complicated and involved conversations.

“He came up with ways to save the state and county taxpayers money and nobody wanted any part of it,” Albany County Comptroller Mike Conners said of Brody who attempted to get deployed with the county to identify Medicaid recipients in the County Jail who shouldn’t be getting that benefit. Such audits are known as ”prison matches.”

Brody’s contacting of Conners a few years back, along with his placing some Medicaid data on his home computer were among the problems cited by his OMIG bosses. He was also a party to a whistleblower suit that contended various providers were getting paid for services they never rendered. The suit didn’t progress very far, however.

Brody was also featured in a 2012 Times Union story that cited several then-current and retired OMIG employees saying the agency was adrift under former director James Cox.

It wasn’t immediately clear if the state would try to appeal the independent arbitrator’s decision.

And at 66, Brody said he wants to keep working but says he is frustrated with the business-as-usual mindset that prevails in the state agency.

Albany County’s Conners agreed that state investigative units like OMIG often feel constrained. Buffeted between their bosses and powerful, often well connected health care providers, they can be caught in the middle of often-complicated billing disputes.

“Middle management doesn’t want to look bad and nobody wants to make a mistake,” said Conners.

Here is the arbitrator’s decision: