(Mineola, NY) Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos issued a follow-up audit of the Nassau Health Care Corporation (NHCC) today that found many of the same problems identified in an audit released in March 2011 continue costing the hospital millions of dollars. The scope of the follow-up audit was from 2010-2012. The repeat findings include billing errors, uncollectable receivables, questionable procurement practices and vendor payments without adequate supporting documentation. The audit also found a lack of management oversight of non-medical employees’ overtime resulting in far more overtime hours than what was shown in the timekeeping system and certain engineering staff running up overtime amounts up to 124% of their regular pay.
“It is shocking that a follow-up audit would find the same poor administrative practices continuing largely unabated two years after the first audit highlighted the problems,” Comptroller George Maragos said. “There was little evidence to substantiate management’s claims of improvements. It is especially troubling that known billing errors continued costing the hospital millions in lost revenues.”
The follow-up audit covering the period 2010-2012 found:
- The original audit issued in March 2011 found that $6.5 million of unbilled gross charges had not been billed to insurance providers or patients because of missing patient information and pre-billing errors. The follow-up could not confirm any improvements as there were no reconciliation reports produced to substantiate how unbilled patient accounts were ultimately resolved. In fact, $7.9 million in untimely billing write offs during the two year period 2011 through 2012 were identified.
- The prior audit noted that NHCC did not comply with the pre-contract approval process. The files reviewed lacked support that contracts were competitively bid with public notice. The auditors also found that contracts were not always approved before being executed.
- The prior audit noted that NHCC added amendments to a 2009 contract without competitive bidding. The follow-up found two more amendments added to the same consultant’s contract for entirely different services than what was noted in the original contract. The consultant was paid an additional $2.7 million under all contracts between 2010 and 2012.
- The prior audit revealed that claim vouchers were approved and paid without adequate supporting documentation. The follow-up review found that NHCC still did not have written procedures to ensure that claim vouchers are complete, accurate and approved by department heads.
- The follow-up review found there still is a lack of management oversight of non-medical employees’ overtime. Testing revealed numerous missing approval documents, employees paid for more overtime hours than what was shown in the timekeeping system and certain engineering staff was earning overtime amounts of 80-124% of their regular pay.
- The prior review revealed that NHCC management did not enforce its vehicle fueling procedures and allowing unauthorized vehicles and drivers to fuel, including the personal vehicle belonging to a Vice President. The follow-up review found numerous entries where more gallons of gas were being attributed to a vehicle than it could hold. These were explained as gas can fill-ups for groundskeepers.
“These management issues have persisted for too long and cannot continue without serious repercussions to the future of the hospital and its mission,” said Comptroller George Maragos. “The Board of Directors and the new Administration must take with urgency all necessary steps to instill professional management practices.”
Connect with Nassau County Comptroller Maragos Online: http://www.nassaucountyny.gov/
