For the Two Years Ended:

June 30, 2003

Total this audit                        3

Total last audit                        1

Repeated from last audit         1

Release Date:

May 20, 2004

State of Illinois

Office of the Auditor General

AUDITOR GENERAL

• The Center had inadequate controls over accounts receivable.

• The Center did not reconcile the property and equipment schedule to the Department of Human Services’ records.

{Expenditures and Activity Measures are summarized on the reverse page.}

EXPENDITURE STATISTICS

FY 2003

FY 2002

FY 2001

$70,704,829

$71,708,419

$68,923,988

Personal Services 9;

$47,248,848

$53,242,309

$50,808,734

$48,610

$45,741

$41,921

     % of Operations Expenditures 9;

16.4%

16.2%

15.4%

     % of Operations Expenditures 9;

6.0%

6.5%

7.5%

     % of Operations Expenditures 9;

1.8%

2.0%

2.3%

0.9%

0.9%

0.9%

10.7%

0.2%

0.3%

• Cost of Property and Equipment

$121,417,293

$121,327,329

$121,055,971

SELECTED ACTIVITY MEASURES

FY 2003

FY 2002

FY 2001

387

430

457

2.51/1

2.71/1

2.65/1

• Cost Per Year Per Resident

*The Department had not calculated this statistic at the close of Fieldwork.

*

$208,733

$188,843

FACILITY DIRECTOR

 

FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS

INADEQUATE CONTROLS OVER ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE

The Center did not process Medicare receivable claims timely and did not notify Department of Human Services (DHS) Central Office of a collection problem with certain accounts receivable. Also, the Center did not have proper support documentation to determine the initial billing rate and its records did not reflect timely completion of the Notice of Determination of ability to pay.

• Two of twenty (10%) accounts receivable tested did not have claims filed timely with Medicare resulting in a loss of revenue of $1,085;

• Eight of twenty (40%) accounts receivable tested were over a year old and not reported to DHS Central Office. These accounts totaled $103,093;

• One of twenty (5%) accounts receivable tested totaling $73,344 did not have support documentation to determine the initial billing rate; and

• Two of twenty (10%) accounts receivable tested totaling $98,754 did not reflect timely completion of the Notice of Determination of ability to pay.

Center personnel indicated that the accounts receivable problems were due to staff shortages in patient-billing. (Finding 2, pages 10-11)

Center officials agreed with our recommendation to allocate sufficient resources to the Recipient Resource Unit to process, bill and collect amount owed.

PROPERTY AND EQUIPMENT SCHEDULE NOT RECONCILED TO DHS RECORDS

The Center did not reconcile the property and equipment schedule to the Department of Human Services’ (DHS) records for the two years ended June 30, 2003.

The Center was not able to reconcile the beginning balance as of July 1, 2001 on the property and equipment schedule to DHS’s records. Specifically, the beginning balance on the property and equipment was understated by $11,090.

Center officials said the person performing this reconciliation took early retirement and no other staff member had been assigned to reconcile this schedule. (Finding 3, pages 12-13)

Center officials agreed with our recommendation to designate and train replacement staff to perform the reconciliation.

The remaining finding dealt with inadequate control over property and equipment. We will review progress toward implementation of all recommendations during the next audit.

We conducted a compliance audit of the Center as required by the Illinois State Auditing Act. This was a limited scope compliance audit that also included certain agreed upon procedures with respect to the accounting records of the Center to assist our financial audit of the entire Department. Financial statements for the entire Department of Human Services will be presented in that report.