Report Summary
Management Letter
Department of Human Services
Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 2001
Key Findings and Recommendations:
- The Department of Human Services did not ensure that counties timely resolved income discrepancies identified as part of the benefit eligibility process. For certain federal assistance programs, the federal government requires the state to "coordinate data exchanges" with other federally assisted benefit programs. This includes comparing income information submitted by applicants with income information obtained from other state and federal sources. The department identified numerous public assistance recipients with income disparities and reported these cases to county social service agencies. However, the discrepancies were not resolved within the time frames established by federal program requirements. The department should work with the county social service agencies to resolve income discrepancies and to ensure that benefits are paid only to eligible recipients.
- The Department of Human Services has not successfully reconciled eligibility status information between the state's public assistance eligibility system (MAXIS) and the medical assistance claims processing system (MMIS). For fiscal year 2001, the department did not distribute the eligibility reports during two months. In several other months, the department distributed the reports that overreported discrepancies between the systems. The department should improve the accuracy of the data used in the reporting process between the two systems to effectively monitor eligibility status for medical programs.
Management Letters address internal control weaknesses and noncompliance issues found during our annual audit of the state's financial statements and federally funded programs. The scope of work in individual agencies is limited. During the fiscal year 2001 audit, our work at the Department of Human Services focused on major public assistance programs, including medical assistance, temporary assistance for needy families, and food stamps; and on other grant programs, including federal social services, community social services, and chemical dependency treatment. We reviewed cost of care revenues for the department's residential treatment centers and group homes and child support collections and disbursements. Finally, we performed procedures on a number of federally funded programs administered by the department to determine whether the department complied with certain federal requirements.
