Auditor finds state overpaid wellbeing care vendors $7 million working with federal Covid reduction money

A report from the state auditor’s business office, issued Monday, showed the Agency of Human Solutions overpaid 17 unnamed well being treatment vendors by $7 million utilizing federal Covid-19 relief dollars. 

The report focused on $92.7 million in help disbursed in 3 independent rounds by the agency by way of the Wellness Treatment Stabilization grant program, revealing that 21 of the 39 payments reviewed ended up way too massive or ought to not have been built at all. 

The $7 million in overpayments accounted for 8% of the full resources audited.

“The very first 12 months of the pandemic significantly disrupted Vermont’s overall health care process, and the Agency of Human Companies acted speedily to deploy federal COVID funds to permit health and fitness facilities to fork out their bills,” Point out Auditor Doug Hoffer said in a assertion. “By moving so swiftly, while, the software critique process was not complete.

“As a final result, thousands and thousands ended up distributed to entities who experienced not demonstrated they required it, or to some whose use of resources was contrary to point out and federal principles,” Hoffer stated.

The point out could be on the hook for overpayments if the federal govt decides to recoup grants “that are unsuccessful to comply with the allowable uses,” in accordance to the report. The Agency of Human Companies has no latest options to ask suppliers — which consist of hospitals, nursing houses, drug treatment method facilities, amid other locations —  to repay the state.

In a response to the auditor’s report, the agency’s interim secretary, Jenney Samuelson, known as the grant application a results.

“AHS is well prepared for any recoupments ought to that be necessary, but provided that there is no evidence of fraudulent intent, there has been no evidence of a have to have for recoupment to day,” Samuelson explained in her March 7 response.

The agency is conducting a “post-award validation” approach, which it had planned due to the fact the commencing of the grant system, Samuelson mentioned.

The federal stabilization grants were meant to support well being treatment vendors that had misplaced profits simply because of the pandemic. Vendors could also acquire reimbursement for Covid-relevant fees this kind of as own protecting equipment, telecommunications infrastructure and ad hoc medical services. The cash could not be used to pay back wages or bonuses. 

To speed up disbursement, the agency employed a risk-primarily based procedure to assessment applications, devoting the most time to the applications from vendors whose revenues had been most impacted by the pandemic. As a consequence, the agency neglected to assessment some programs and supporting documentation, the report reported.

The chance system also did not look at the dimensions of every single grant, leading to some Overall health Care Stabilization payments “exceeding $100,000 getting no evaluation or verification,” the report found.

In some scenarios, the agency did not account for Covid reduction acquired by candidates by means of other condition and federal plans, major to overpayment. In other situations, providers were being reimbursed for charges not protected by the grant software, according to the auditor’s business office.

“If the federal govt identifies overpayments or incorrect use of COVID funds, the taxpayers of Vermont will be the ones who shoulder the load of paying the cash again,” Hoffer explained.