Finding Text
Repeat finding of 2021-002
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: 2021
Compliance Requirement: Reporting
Questioned Costs: Not applicable
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 Periods 2 and 3 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. We note that many of these amounts carried forward in the PRF reports from errors made in the PRF Period 1 reporting. The adjustments needed within the PRF reports to correct the errors noted for PRF Periods 2 and 3 are as follows: (1) lost revenues for the period of availability should decrease from $13,866,058 to $2,405,463 and (2) unused lost revenues should decrease from $12,493,140 to $1,032,545. Furthermore, errors in reporting total revenues by quarter led to errors in the allocation among payers by quarter.
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 presented in the Periods 2 and 3 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, with cumulative amounts through Period 6 reporting. While management did attempt to update its lost revenue amounts with filing of its Period 4 reports, additional data entry errors were made.