Report 2006-035 Recommendation 13 Responses

Report 2006-035: Department of Health Services: It Has Not Yet Fully Implemented Legislation Intended to Improve the Quality of Care in Skilled Nursing Facilities (Release Date: February 2007)

Recommendation #13 To: Health Services, Department of

To ensure that its contract consultant authorizes disbursements of Medi-Cal funds only to facilities entitled to them, Health Services should further investigate the possibility that duplicate payments were authorized by the contractor beyond those we noted to ensure that the magnitude of the problem is identified and corrected. This would include researching all payment types authorized by the contractor since at least October 2005.

1-Year Agency Response

After learning that its contractor, EDS, issued duplicate payments, Health Services reported that it took immediate corrective action by implementing a special processing guideline that discontinued the procedure to override suspended claims. It also conducted an investigation to determine the magnitude of the flawed procedure. In its six-month response, Health Services stated that it has also completed its investigation of Medical, Outpatient, and Vision claims and found a similar processing error that resulted in additional erroneous duplicate payments of certain claims. It further reported that it immediately issued a special processing guideline to temporarily correct the processing error and, as of September 2007, has developed the criteria that will permanently correct the error. (2009-406, p. 13).

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented

All Recommendations in 2006-035

Agency responses received after June 2013 are posted verbatim.