Shipman Family Home Care was six days late to pay their 240 employees, but an attorney for the business tells WFMY there is an explanation.
In a memo to her employees, Gladys Shipman said she couldn't pay her employees because of Medicaid.
READ: Home Care Workers: Where's My Paycheck?
Her attorney says it's not uncommon for providers like Shipman to struggle to make payroll because sometimes, claims aren't paid in full.
"I do know from having represented health care providers for over 25 years, which it is a constant worry about being able to make payroll and a lot of anxiety about whether the claims they submitted will be paid," said Renee Montgomery, Gladys Shipman's attorney.
As for the audit by the US government that says Shipman's owes $2 million from Medicaid overpayments, according to Montgomery, it's a misunderstanding.
She says companies like Shipman's are often audited and sometimes, for reasons as simple as a paperwork error.
"This is getting to the extreme levels where you're sending out these letters telling people they owe hundreds of thousands and then at the end of the day, when you really look at it, they didn't really owe anything," said Montgomery.
"People have always used that as an excuse, whether it's true or not, it's hard to tell."
Antoinette Van-Reil is the owner of Champion Home Care -a business that provides the same services as Shipman Family Home Care. According to Van-Reil, she has never missed payroll
"We've never had an issue being paid by Medicaid but even if Medicaid didn't pay us, I don't think that would be an employee's problem, I think that we have an obligation to pay our employees when they work. They work for the agency," said Van-Reil.
"This is extreme." Marilyn Baird has been an advocate for worker's rights in the Triad for more than twenty years.
"The only complaint we have gotten from home health care workers in this city has been about Shipman...
I've heard of other homecare agencies going out of business, but it was not, they never had the problem of not paying workers," said Baird.
As for Gladys Shipman, she is scheduled to pay her employees again next Friday.