Finding 1097497 (2024-001)

Significant Deficiency 2024-001– Child and Adult Care Food Program – 10.558 – Eligibility Criteria or specific requirement Internal controls should be in place to ensure that complete and accurate meal counts for eligible providers and children be submitted to the State for reimbursement. Condition Six providers received an improper amount for their meal reimbursement for the month tested. Context We determined, through testing of provider meal reimbursements, that an inaccurate number of meals was submitted to the State for reimbursement for six providers in our sample. Effect Two providers were incorrectly reimbursed based off incorrectly adjusted or recapped meals. Two providers had children incorrectly marked as Tier II within the system, when those children should have been reimbursed at Tier I levels. Another provider was over their licensed capacity by one child on certain days throughout the month. For the final provider, the annual enrollment update form could not be located for one child. These items totaled to a net over-reimbursement of the providers of $7. Total estimated errors come to an over-reimbursement of $200. Cause For the providers who were reimbursed based off an incorrect meal count, the first error occurred as a result of mis-keying the provider’s handwritten meal counts into the software. The other error occurred as a result of an error made when making manual adjustments within the software, due to exceptions for capacity. For the providers who had children incorrectly marked as Tier II, the first provider did not have the child correctly marked as Tier I within the software system. The second provider had two children who were entered as Tier I, but the system was not properly recognizing that status. The two final instances noted for being over license capacity and a missing enrollment form were caused by human error. Recommendation Controls should be reviewed and updated to ensure that reimbursements are only requested for complete and accurate meal counts at the correct rate of reimbursement, and that only eligible participants are submitted to the State for reimbursement. Views of responsible officials and planned corrective actions See corrective action plan.