In March of 2024, Chad Wable, the president and CEO of Advanced Behavioral Health (ABH) in Middletown, announced at a company retreat in Old Saybrook that he wanted to turn the $30 million not-for-profit state contractor into a one hundred-million-dollar company, according to multiple sources who were in attendance. 

Roughly one year later, Wable — the former president of St. Mary’s Hospital in Waterbury who was earning roughly $350,000 per year for running ABH — was placed on paid leave, the board chairman resigned, several high-level, long-time employees were gone, a for-profit start-up business ABH invested in was closed, and the company is now facing a whistleblower complaint with the state auditors, and a complaint with the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities.

But there are also claims that Wable was directing state contract and grant money, which makes up nearly the entire operating budget of ABH, to be used outside the scope of those contracts — something ABH adamantly denies.

In numerous off-the-record conversations, past and present ABH employees allege Wable essentially played fast and loose with state dollars by contracting with friends, creating new positions with hefty salaries charged to state contracts, and spending money in ways that raised concerns about the misuse of state grant money, including an attempt to create a new for-profit subsidiary.

Those allegations are also supported through internal emails and invoices obtained by Inside Investigator, which show staff raising concerns over the use of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars for ABH’s for-profit subsidiaries, including a new start-up company, marketing and branding for ABH, and the creation of a New Year’s Eve video, all at the direction of Wable. Those expenses were flagged and corrected by staff, some of whom then found themselves out of a job.

ABH is being tight-lipped regarding any potential issues within the company. A February 11, 2025, email reminded employees they are not authorized to speak to the media; when Inside Investigator reached out with questions regarding Wable’s status and the whistleblower complaint, ABH hired a public relations firm.

ABH, through their public relations firm, states that Wable is “still employed” but will not say in what capacity and will give no further information regarding Wable’s status. The company also states that at no time were public funds misspent or used for other projects.

“ABH has rigorous financial and compliance measures in place to ensure that all public funds are managed responsibly and used for their intended purpose,” ABH wrote in an emailed statement. “A thorough internal review reaffirmed the strength of our processes and confirmed that no state funds were improperly spent.”

Advanced Behavioral Health, Inc, is a not-for-profit company that essentially handles administrative, educational, and technology infrastructure services for numerous state mental and behavioral health programs, receiving roughly $30 million in state grants and contracts per year.

Those grants form, by far, the largest portion of ABH’s funding with their total revenue in FY 2024 amounting to $31.8 million, according to a board of directors’ report from September of 2024. However, the company also maintains a for-profit subsidiary called Behavioral Health CT, LLC, which runs Solutions EAP, providing consulting, training, and counseling services for businesses and employees. 

Solutions EAP contracts with multiple municipal entities as well, although they showed an overall loss in 2024. ABH maintains another for-profit entity – ABH Enterprises, LLC – which showed a mere $12,788 in revenue for fiscal year 2024.

All that to say, ABH is almost entirely supported by taxpayer dollars through grants and contracts with the state, and employee costs — including executive pay — are tied to those contracts. It is unknown the exact date on which Wable was placed on leave, but in an October 11, 2024, email, the ABH board of directors informed employees they had hired a law firm to conduct an internal investigation in response to a whistleblower claim.

“Please note that all ABH personnel are expected to cooperate fully and provide all the information that is requested in connection with the investigation. ABH strictly prohibits and has zero tolerance for retaliation against employees who file complaints or cooperate in an investigation,” the board of directors wrote. “Our process for handling this whistleblower report will be ongoing over the next couple weeks.”

A little more than a month later, the senior leadership team of ABH sent an email to program managers informing them that CEO Wable had been placed on leave after “concerns from ABH employees” were brought to senior leadership. Another email to all employees from Chief Operating Officer Deena Tampi informed the ABH team that she was taking over CEO duties.

“As you know, I have been working at ABH as the COO since this past June,” Tampi wrote. “I have recently been appointed to oversee ABH in the interim secondary to our CEO being on leave. I am in regular contact with the board; and will continue to provide updates.”

Deena Tampi was officially hired as COO in June, but she had actually been working for ABH longer than that. Her company, Behavioral Health Advisory Group (BHAG), was quickly brought into the fold by Wable after he was hired as CEO in September of 2023. In January of 2024, ABH contracted with Tampi’s company “to provide the COO role,” according to an email. 

ABH had not previously had a COO, and according to an April 16, 2024, email from Wable to senior leadership, the company was not looking especially hard for one.

“This is a unique search given Deena is in the interim role and essentially interviewing as interim,” Table wrote. “I also have some colleagues I know are more than capable of being successful as our COO that I may bring in for an initial interview such as tomorrow’s interview. I do not intend to do a full search for the COO.”

ABH also contracted with another BHAG employee, Kellie Johansen, to be Interim Vice President of Program Development, essentially taking over the Solutions EAP program. Johansen contracted to work four days per week for $9,000 per month plus three nights of travel, lodging and expenses, although Johansen was submitting invoices in excess of that amount, according to emails. Johansen’s tenure with the company was purportedly marred by an attempt to raise prices on clients mid-contract.

While the company affirms it previously contracted with Deena Tampi’s advisory group, they state she was never paid by both ABH and BHAG at the same time, and that Tampi dissolved BHAG when she was hired full-time as COO to avoid any conflict of interest. Indeed, no trace of BHAG can be found online.

But it also appears Wable was attempting to have ABH buy his own healthcare consulting firm.

An invoice from August of 2024 from a consulting firm out of Knoxville, TN, shows ABH was considering the purchase of Aspire Results, Wable’s own healthcare advisory firm listed on his biography on ABH’s website. PYA invoiced ABH $1,829.70 for “Phase 2 of services to Aspire Results,” including “ongoing discussions related to calculation of value analysis and advisory services related to potential transaction structures.”

It appears, however, that Wable was placed on leave before the potential purchase moved any further along. 

Part of Wable’s growth plan included expanding ABH’s revenue streams by adding more for-profit subsidiaries. To that end, Wable took on High Impact Performance & Recovery, LLC, a company formed by Michael Horn in June of 2023, prior to Wable being hired as CEO of ABH. Wable later took over High Impact as principal manager in June of 2024, according to state business records.

The company was housed in a business park in Southington and would focus on cold therapy rehabilitation for physical injuries. Although Wable is listed as the managing principal of High Impact, the startup was still being spearheaded by Michael Horn at a rate of $2,500 per week, according to an April 2024 invoice to ABH.

The idea of cold therapy for injury recovery was not altogether outside the scope of ABH’s mission. Cold therapy was seen as an alternative to powerful pain-killing drugs that cause addiction. According to sources with knowledge of the matter, Wable and ABH saw an opportunity: cold therapy is covered by workers compensation, but not by commercial insurance. They hoped to utilize money the State of Connecticut received through its settlement with opioid manufacturer Purdue Pharma to offer cold therapy to those who would otherwise not be covered.

Like any business, however, there were startup costs. According to one internal spreadsheet estimate, the first-year operating expenses would be $522,667, and more than $1 million over two years, although they were also anticipating revenue from the venture that would result in a net loss of roughly $127,000.

That never happened. According to the same September 2024 board presentation, High Impact Performance and Recovery showed a loss of $170,746 for ABH, and High Impact never officially got off the ground following Wable’s leave. Instead, new leadership at ABH pulled the plug without ever generating revenue or clients.

“Nonprofits often establish for-profit subsidiaries to create sustainable revenue streams that support their mission; a practice commonly seen in sectors like healthcare, where hospitals routinely operate associated for-profit entities. ABH launched High Impact Performance and Recovery to expand and diversify its revenue streams,” ABH said in a statement. “As can often happen with new business lines, High Impact Performance never progressed beyond the initial stages, and, as previously stated, was recently wound down.”

But with nearly all of ABH’s money coming from state contracts and its for-profit subsidiaries showing either negligible revenue or losses, according to the board presentation, it raised the question of what funds were used to back High Impact. Multiple sources assert that ABH, at least initially, funded High Impact through its operating account, which is almost entirely state funds – something ABH adamantly denies.

ABH says it used “cash reserves, savings, investment income, and revenue generated from for-profit subsidiaries,” which “were sufficient to cover High Impact Performance and Recovery’s startup costs,” in response to Inside Investigator’s questions. Later, the company acknowledged they took a $650,000 line of credit to support High Impact, but state they never drew down on the credit because the costs were all covered through the aforementioned revenue sources.

The board presentation, and a 2023 audit filed with Connecticut’s Office of Policy and Management (OPM), show ABH had roughly $1.9 million in investments and more than $300,000 in total income. While the company had more than $5 million in cash on hand, nearly all of it was due back to the state as part of their cost settlement.

While a $170,000 loss due to High Performance may appear to be a drop in the bucket for a company that sees tens of millions going in and out each year, ABH’s total comprehensive income for FY 2023 was only $170,760.

But at least some American Rescue Plan (ARPA) grant money was initially put toward High Impact before it was caught by staff, who warned Wable and others the expenses were improper. 

Invoices and emails received by Inside Investigator show that an ABH contractor charged expenses for both High Impact and Solutions EAP to a $173,000 state ARPA grant awarded to ABH by the Office of Early Childhood (OEC) and the Department of Children and Families (DCF) to develop an online educational platform for the Early Childhood Consultation Partnership (ECCP). The ECCP provides “early childhood mental health promotion, prevention and intervention services to children who are at risk of suspension/expulsion from early care and education settings due to behavioral and mental health concerns.”

Among those expenses was $1,500 for a naming and discovery meeting for High Impact held between Michael Horn, who was leading the effort to get High Impact off the ground, and Rebel Interactive Group, the Cheshire-based contractor hired by Wable to execute the ECCP grant. According to the documents, at least some of these charges were made explicitly at the direction of Wable.

Another invoice sent by Rebel to ABH for work done on behalf of High Impact was labeled “brand strategy,” and amounted to more than $7,500 for the creation of a landing page and ongoing tech support for High Impact, among other items. Another invoice for more than $1,000 for “brand repositioning strategy,” was submitted by Rebel for work done for Solutions EAP, ABH’s other for-profit subsidiary.

The invoices were quickly flagged by staff members who noted the expenses were outside the contract’s scope of work and could not be charged to the ECCP grant.

“You mention that the first item, ABH Brand Strategy related to the meetings and reports you prepared for an overall plan for ABH and meetings with Chad, Melissa, Margie, Ron, Dave and others, including work for EAP and High Impact, and I shared that I did not think that could be covered by the ECCP grant,” wrote ECCP Director Jolanta Borto in a July 2024 email to Sam Barrett of Rebel. “I reviewed this with our finance dept. (copying our Finance Controller Vanessa Weymouth), she confirmed that this is not an allowable expense for the grant funds.”

Attempts at charging the ECCP grant for marketing and technology work for both High Impact and EAP was only part of more than $70,000 in costs expensed to the ECCP grant that ran afoul of the scope of work. 

The OEC and DCF, like most state departments, were looking to unload ARPA money before the federal deadline and initially awarded ABH $500,000 for the ECCP grant to create an online education portal to train community contractors in June of 2023, with a deadline for completion of the project by December 31, 2023. 

When Wable became aware of the grant after being hired in September of that year, he contracted with Rebel to implement the grant. According to the initial scope of work, $300,000 would be used for “marketing services, Project Kickoff & Account Management,” while $200,000 was set aside for the actual project – building an educational platform.

That idea was scaled down substantially, however, after staff more experienced with state contracts and grants pointed out that grant money couldn’t be used for ABH’s marketing and branding. The final agreed-upon number was $173,000, which included two revised scope of work contracts — $123,000 for the development of a learning platform and content design, production, and technical development: and an additional $50,000 for an ECCP community awareness campaign, training extensions, curriculum, and platform requirements. 

The work was approved and contracts with Rebel signed in early and mid-December of 2023 and because the due date was right around the corner, Rebel was paid using ECCP grant funds within a month of signing. By July of 2024, however, staff members, including the Director of ECCP for ABH, were asking questions and requesting breakdowns for invoices sent by Rebel.

According to one breakdown of Rebel’s work, the group expended $7,500 on a New Year’s Eve video, that reportedly featured Wable, and $1,500 on business cards for Wable, both of which indicated the expenses were “approved by Chad.” 

The same breakout lists $1,500 for naming and discovery of High Impact; $10,000 for “ABH Brand Strategy,” and $75,000 for redesigning the websites of not only ECCP but also for ABH and its for-profit subsidiary, EAP.

While it should be noted that most of these projects had not yet been started or were in progress, of the $174,000 provided for in the ECCP grant, roughly $70,000 of it was going toward expenses outside the listed scope of work. Rebel also supplied an invoice from June of 2024 for costs associated with ABH branding and strategy.

“The funds you received, $174,730, were strictly for ECCP Grant funds covered by State and Federal funds to be used exclusively for ECCP projects at the direction of Jola,” former Finance Controller for ABH Vanessa Weymouth wrote to Rebel. “Anyone else giving you direction to use these State and Federal funds for other projects was misleading and I am sorry if there was confusion but under no circumstances can we misappropriate State and Federal funds.”

Weymouth directed Rebel to submit separate invoices for the items outside the ECCP scope of work and the funds were returned to the ECCP budget, but there were questions remaining about who was directing ECCP funds awarded to Rebel to be used for which purposes.

According to a June 13, 2024, email from a Rebel subcontractor to ABH, they were seeking to “determine the budget left at Rebel to build an ABH specific Portal with all the key features,” and “Build out a business plan for future growth and funding opportunities for ABH branded content.”

The disposition of that ECCP grant, who directed Rebel to work on which projects, and whether the work has been completed remains unknown at this time. ABH has remained mum on those questions, only stating – as indicated previously – that they have “rigorous financial and compliance measures in place to ensure that all public funds are managed responsibly and used for their intended purpose.” 

The responsible management, according to emails, appears to have come from staff members, some of whom no longer work for ABH, who say they were trying to rein in a CEO who was looking to aggressively grow a not-for-profit company. That push to grow, however, not only included efforts to expand for-profit subsidiaries and ABH’s marketing and branding but also potentially cutting employees whose pay is covered under contracts or adding executive pay to state contracts.

In a July 2, 2024, email from Wable to Deena Tampi and the interim CFO Tom Scott, Wable outlined both realized and potential cost savings of more than $1.8 million, the result of an assessment completed in late 2023 and presented to the board in January of 2024. Those savings – or opportunities for improvement (OFIs) — were to be included in their FY 2025 budget. 

This included eliminating $500,000 worth of information technology employees and $1 million worth of full-time employees. “We can eliminate these definitely – do this now… we can use the funding for other priorities – there are a lot of unproductive FTEs that need to be eliminated??”

Wable’s board report listed some of those savings under his year in review accomplishments, including $300,000 in “Base IT saving,” but there is no mention of the FTE positions.

That same month, issues were raised about salary positions being added to the state’s 1115 Demonstration Waiver from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which allows states to “demonstrate and test flexibilities to improve the continuum of care for beneficiaries with substance use disorders (SUD) including Opioid Use Disorder (OUD),” according to the Connecticut Department of Social Services.

“I have some major concerns about the 1115 FY25 budget changes as I was not a part of the discussion and there are salaries in there that do not belong,” wrote Kristin Bonilla, vice president of programs for ABH, to Tampi. “The biggest issue I have is that Zach Crosby, a Finance person, analyst – is in there now at 50%. He does nothing for the 1115 Waiver, we do nothing manual anymore. He will not be involved in any way… I suspect there will be questions about this and do not want to lose my agreement of transparency with Rob, this budget and this contract.”

Although Tampi is acting CEO at this time, Wable is still listed as CEO on ABH’s website. The actual cause of Wable being placed on paid leave is unknown at this time, as ABH will not comment other than to say that Wable is still employed, nor will they share the results of their internal investigation. 

DCF says they were made aware that Wable was put on leave in October of 2024, but says, “the Board Chair of the organization needs to confirm his status to us, as it does appear he is still employed at ABH, according to their website.”

“We were made aware of the whistleblower complaint and have been actively collaborating with our sister State Agencies and State Auditors of Public Accounts surrounding the concerns expressed in the complaint,” DCF Director of Communications Peter Yazbak wrote in an emailed response to multiple questions. “ABH holds contracts across State agencies and this collaboration began early upon learning of their issues.”

“We do not believe any of our contracts have been negatively impacted by the change in leadership or the allegations made,” Yazbak wrote. “Each organization we partner with has the ability to structure the organization in a manner consistent with what they believe will lead to positive outcomes and meeting all contractual obligation.”

Yazbak also indicated they were aware of ABH forming High Impact Performance and Recovery, stating that private providers are allowed to “diversify programming according to their business model.”

“Whenever a disruption in leadership occurs with a provider, we are naturally concerned something might be amiss that causes the change,” Yazbak wrote. “We pull our Fiscal and Contract staff together and do a review to ensure our contracted programs are not affected. We took these actions in response to the changes at ABH and found our contracts to be unaffected at this time.” 

But the shake-up at ABH threw a wrench in their normal operations when it comes to fulfilling at least one obligation to the State of Connecticut.

Every year, ABH must submit an audit to the Office of Policy and Management no later than six months after the end of the audit period. Since at least 2014, ABH has filed those audits in December. However, they have yet to submit an audit for 2024, and ABH says OPM has allowed them a deadline extension.

“We are actively working to complete the process and ensure that all state requirements are met,” ABH said in a statement.

In November of 2024, Wable was on YouTube as a guest on the Anchoring Hope podcast, a Christian-focused show, during which he discussed his role as CEO of ABH.

“I’ve just been here for under a year and it’s complex when you have this many contracts,” Wable said to the host. “There’s a level of certain complexity but there’s a joy that comes with it, in terms of all the great work that we’re doing in any one of our individual programs.”

“One thing I’m trying to do is bring a spirit of the totality of community impact that we make across all of our programs and services,” Wable continued. “We’re not only out there doing, sort of, God’s work in a lot of ways in helping those that are in need, but we’re also trying to improve day by day, week by week, month by month, year over year.”

“In discussions with our contract management staff, they are aware of the changes and have been monitoring ABH closely,” Yazbak wrote. “Reviews are ongoing and as additional information is received, changes may be made accordingly.”

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