Finding Text
Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Federal Program: Consolidated Health Centers Grant AL Number: 93.224 & 93.527 Award Period: 1/1/22 - 12/31/22 Type of Finding: Significant deficiency in Internal Control over Compliance and Compliance Criteria or Specific Requirement Per Title 42 Chapter 1 Subchapter D Section 51c303(f), ?Health centers must have a schedule of fees or payments for the provision of their health services consistent with locally prevailing rates or charges designed to cover their reasonable costs of operation. They are also required to have a corresponding schedule of discounts applied and adjusted on the basis of the patient?s ability to pay.? Condition and Context During our testing of forty sliding fee discounts for health center patients qualifying for reduced charge visits, we identified one visit that received the incorrect sliding fee discount. Effect Potential that a patient would not receive the appropriate sliding fee discount. Questioned Costs None identified. Cause Clerical error in which the incorrect discount was applied due to lack of an oversight process in place. Recommendation We recommend the Organization to review internal controls in regards to the determination, recording, and monitoring of the sliding fee process to ensure that appropriate sliding fee rates/categories are utilized for each sliding fee encounter. Views of Responsible Officials The Organization will implement a procedure to randomly test ten Sliding Fee Discounts per service line monthly to ensure we are applying the correct discounts and the patient is paying the correct discounted amount. The Organization will train staff to test Sliding Fee Discounted visits going forward starting July 1, 2023.