Legislative Audit Commission

 

RESOLUTION NO. 137

Presented by Representative Mautino

 

          WHEREAS, State law requires the State Comptroller and the Department of Central Management Services to jointly promulgate rules and policies for the prompt payment of State obligations, including procedures and time frames for approving a bill or invoice from a vendor for goods or services furnished to the State; and

 

          WHEREAS, the State Comptroller and the Department of Central Management Services have adopted such rules at Title 74 of the Illinois Administrative Code, Part 900; and

 

          WHEREAS, those rules require State agencies to approve “proper bills” received from vendors or deny bills with defects, in whole or in part, within 30 days after receipt; and

 

          WHEREAS, those rules also require State agencies to notify vendors as soon as possible when defects are discovered in a bill; the notification must indicate the nature of the defect and any additional information necessary to correct the defect; and

 

          WHEREAS, State agencies are required to maintain adequate documentation of all such notifications and subsequent agency and vendor actions so as to determine when and from what date late payment interest is due and to resolve any related vendor disputes; and

 

          WHEREAS, interest shall begin accruing on the 61st day after receipt of a proper bill and continues to accrue until the bill is paid by the Comptroller’s Office; and

 

          WHEREAS, the Department of Healthcare and Family Services acknowledges owing several million dollars in interest to vendors providing services in the Medicaid program whose bills were not paid in a timely manner; therefore

 

          BE IT RESOLVED, BY THE LEGISLATIVE AUDIT COMMISSION that the Auditor General is directed to conduct a management audit of the Department of Healthcare and Family Services’ process for receipt, approval, denial, and payment of vendor bills for services provided in the Medicaid program; and be it further

 

          RESOLVED, that the audit include but not be limited to, the following determinations:

 

·        whether and at what point there are delays in the reviewing and processing vendor bills and payments;

·        whether decisions to reject bills as not being in proper form are adequately documented and communicated in a timely manner to vendors, including a sampling of vendors to identify problems they may have encountered with the process;

·        whether dates of receipt of proper bills are adequately documented;

·        whether the regular, systematic process used by the Department of Healthcare and Family Services for reporting claim liability information to the Office of the Comptroller pertaining to claims received and approved, but not yet submitted to the Office of the Comptroller, is adequate and

 

RESOLVED, that the Department of Healthcare and Family Services and the Office of the State Comptroller, and any other State agency, entity or person that may have information relevant to this audit cooperate fully and promptly with the Auditor General’s Office in its conduct; and be it further

 

RESOLVED, that the Auditor General report his audit conclusions as soon as possible and make public his findings and recommendations upon completion in accordance with the provision of Section 3-14 of the Illinois State Auditing Act.

 

Adopted this 21st day of May, 2007.

 

 

_______________________________               ______________________________

Representative Frank J. Mautino                             Senator Chris Lauzen

Co-Chair                                                               Co-Chair