Description of Finding:
Sliding fee discounts were given to three of the 40 patients tested that were inconsistent with the Health Center’s sliding fee discount policy.
Statement of Concurrence:
Shasta Community Health Center (SCHC) management agrees with the finding related to sliding fee discounts being provided to a small number of patients inconsistent with the Health Center’s sliding fee
discount policy. The finding suggests that staff miscalculated which discount these patients would qualify for based on the income documented on the sliding fee forms. This miscalculation caused incorrect sliding fee discounts to be provided.
Corrective Action:
Miscalculations seem to be the leading cause of the errors noted by the auditors. Ongoing training/internal audits needs to be more robust to ensure staff understand and accurately calculate which discount the patient qualifies for. Center Managers shall review the slide audits to determine which employees are making errors and provide re-training or corrective action as applicable and document/monitor for improvement.
In addition, SCHC is in the process of launching a computer-based patient form completion system, which will calculate the slide fee automatically, removing much of the human element, and thereby greatly reducing the likelihood of miscalculation. We will continue to perform audits on the new process to ensure we see an improvement in our administration of the sliding fee discount program.
Individual Primarily Responsible for Corrective Action:
Chief Operations Officer
Projected Completion Date:
Center Managers will begin documenting retraining/corrective action taken based on sliding fee audit starting June 2024.
SCHC is in the process of creating the electronic forms needed to launch the computer-based registration and income verification. We expect the forms to be ready to go live late Fall, early Winter.