Finding Text
Federal Program: COVID-19: Provider Relief Fund and American Rescue Plan (ARP) Rural Distribution Program
Assistance Listing Number: 93.498
Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Award Number: N/A
Award Year: 2020
Compliance Requirement: Reporting
Questioned Costs: Not determinable
Criteria: Non-federal entities in receipt of federal funds must comply with the requirements of
2 CFR 200.303(a), which requires an entity to establish and maintain effective internal control over the Federal award to ensure compliance with Federal statutes, regulations, and the terms and conditions of the Federal award. Recipients of Provider Relief Funds (PRF) payments must also comply with the reporting requirements described in the PRF terms and conditions and specified in directions issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Condition and Context: The System did not complete the PRF Period 1 reporting in accordance with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services guidance. The System did not enter the correct amounts from its data supporting lost revenues for all quarters; it also did not enter the correct amounts from its data supporting eligible expenditures. The adjustments needed within the PRF reports to correct the errors decreased year over year lost revenues from $21,664,944 to $11,771,346 and decreased eligible expenditures from $7,527,194 to $4,334,813, on total distributions of PRF funding of $14,972,846. In summary, the data supporting amounts for lost revenues and eligible expenses totals $16,104,159 on total distributions of PRF funding of $14,972,846 in this reporting period.
Effect: The amounts reported to Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) were not in accordance with established U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reporting guidance.
Cause: Errors in the lost revenues and eligible expenditures presented in the Period 1 report submissions were not detected by the Sytem's internal control process.
Recommendation: We recommend that management implement procedures to ensure that the most recent guidance is reviewed and understood and that information used in preparation of the reports is reviewed, with errors addressed, prior to reporting.
Planned Corrective Actions and View of Responsible Officials: System management agrees with the finding and has updated its lost revenue calculation. Management attempted to update lost revenue amounts with filing of its Period 4 reports; however, additional data entry errors were made.