Report 2018-603 Recommendations

When an audit is completed and a report is issued, auditees must provide the State Auditor with information and periodic reports regarding their progress in implementing the report’s recommendations. For audits conducted under the State High Risk Audit Program, these periodic reports are due every 90 days from the issue date of the report until such time as the State Auditor directs the auditee otherwise, according to title 2, section 61024 of the California Code of Regulations. Additionally, Senate Bill 1452 (Chapter 452, Statutes of 2006), requires auditees who have not implemented recommendations after one year, to report to us and to the Legislature why they have not implemented them or to state when they intend to implement them. Below, is a listing of each recommendation the State Auditor made in the report referenced and a link to the most recent response from the auditee addressing their progress in implementing the recommendation and the State Auditor's assessment of auditee's response based on our review of the supporting documentation.

Recommendations in Report 2018-603: Department of Health Care Services: It Paid Billions in Questionable Medi-Cal Premiums and Claims Because It Failed to Follow Up on Eligibility Discrepancies (Release Date: October 2018)

Recommendations to Health Care Services, Department of
Number	Recommendation	Status
2	To recover inappropriately spent funds, prevent future erroneous payments, and ensure eligible individuals' access to care, Health Care Services should resolve the discrepancies we identified and recover erroneous payments where allowable by June 30, 2019.	Pending
3	To prevent future erroneous payments, Health Care Services should implement procedures by December 31, 2018, to ensure the timely resolution of system discrepancies. These procedures should include Health Care Services regularly following up on recurring, unresolved system discrepancies with the responsible county.	Pending
4	To prevent future erroneous payments, Health Care Services should establish procedures by December 31, 2018, that define when it will use its authority as defined in state law to sanction unresponsive counties that do not remedy known discrepancies.	Pending
5	To assist counties in addressing discrepancies, Health Care Services should find a cost-effective method to provide its exception reports in an electronic format readable by common database and spreadsheet software products that would allow users to sort and filter the data readily by December 31, 2018.	Fully Implemented
6	To assist counties in addressing discrepancies, Health Care Services should reevaluate and update its guidance to the counties related to prioritizing MEDS alerts by December 31, 2018.	Fully Implemented

Recommendations to Legislature
Number	Recommendation	Status
1	To ensure that Health Care Services adequately monitors the counties' resolution of system discrepancies, the Legislature should require Health Care Services to report publicly on counties' compliance with the performance standards set forth in state law, as well as Health Care Services' actions taken in response to counties not complying with the standards.	No Action Taken

Print all recommendations and responses.