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| There is a disconnect between what the recently completed investigation into EMS billing finds and what the board was told leading up to a $6 Million Dollar write-off of bad debt last April.... |
As I wrote in part I of this series earlier this morning--some things that were told to board members ahead of a $6 Million Dollar write-off of noncollectable EMS bad debt last April do not match up with what the official investigation has found. This is troubling.
Taking a step back--it is troubling because we as elected board members are reliant on staff to give us accurate, timely, and complete information when required and when we request it--otherwise we cannot function properly and make good decisions on behalf of the citizens we represent. It is very basic: We are not the subject matter experts on all facets of operations--nor should we be. Thus, we rely in large part on staff. Decisions we make are only as good as the information we are given to make these decisions.
And I know the feeling, firsthand, that comes when a board member finds he was deliberately misled and/or given incomplete information purposely....it is called a flashback to the Newpoint Charter Schools fiasco that occurred when I was a member of the Escambia County School Board and got wind of misinformation being given to the board and about resources being stolen from students. I blew that open, went to the State Attorney, and some folks went to jail. Others avoided the scrutiny they deserved, and were very fortunate in the way the outcomes worked for them. That's the way that worked. If anyone is interested in that, they can read all the posts about that issue here.
But that was five years ago, and that issue is over---so I digress.
Now we are talking about a nearly $6 Million Dollar write off of debt that was presented to the board as an issue caused by a "software glitch" caused by the EMS billing department cycling back and forth between two different software systems.
I'm confident that most of that $6 Million in bad debt was in fact debt from 2005-2017--I believe that. But in analyzing the statements made by staff and responses to questions posed to staff from me and my counterparts, particularly answers given to Commissioner Barry--there is a disconnect about a portion of the debt being written off that does not square with what our investigation now reveals. Much of the issue was caused by a "failure of management"to review workflow--not a software glitch issue. The backup from that meeting item requests the write off of "13,668 accounts that have been through all phases of the billing and collection cycles, to include all primary and secondary insurance filing, private pay processing pre-collection letters, and/or referral to the secondary collection agency." But the investigations states, as it pertains to these accounts, that "The required write-off of bad debt was attributed to a failure of management to continue to review and ensure the workflow for billing would be conducted in all billing systems." Importantly: Did these accounts, in fact, ALL go through all primary and secondary insurance filing as was indicated to the board in our backup? This is important, and I want to know.
And I remembered that "software glitch" term being a prominent part of the conversation between the board and members of PS leadership on April 4th during our agenda review session. As a matter of fact I went back and watched that discussion multiple times today (minutes 40:00-55:00 of this link) and at multiple points it was said by staff that the issue was "Completely software driven" I remember we had a very robust review of that issue with lots of questions for staff. Looking at what was said then, and what I am reading today--the two do not square.
If it was completely a software issue--how come the investigator could not corroborate that claim with testimony or documentary evidence?
This is going to require a deeper dive next week, and this issue in particular will be one I will request our new administrator to look into as soon as possible.
The Board MUST have confidence that the information we are given is accurate, timely, and complete--even if the optics are unflattering. If not, confidence is lost and the whole system will break down.
I read through about one third of the report on PNJ..Ok so it wasn't exactly a glitch it was not following through over a period of about 15 years and it added up, and now those people don't work there and so the Director brought it up to the board to be written off on one whack and they are trying to correct that problem. Ok, no big deal, water under the bridge.
ReplyDeleteJust shows that providing services and not billing for them cause problems. Note Century on the news. Same scenario except for them not billing for services going on for so long may be the death blow. That's another story.
If it's common knowledge under 50K is exempt for PO and someone tells people that then it doesn't seem nefarious. But splitting this one was, but the problem was going on before that.
People just do your job and do it well.
Drama down. Drama is conflict, everyone trying to figure who's at fault, who is to fix it etc.
"Handle it" "Move On"
I can also see why getting in front of the board and on the news can be difficult for county employees. I though the past policy was not to talk about HR.
Publishing the DOH investigation stirred up an necessary hornets nest. Even as a member of public and knowledgeable about sunshine, at times discretion is necessary and prudent in this time of social media and everyone with a microphone.
Hopefully it just helps to get people to tighten up, do a good job.
If you don't want to make the news, don't do it..and media loves bad news and click bait.
Good luck..
Who spilled the Beans? Why would the PIO release a non redacted internal investigation report to the PNJ? Looks Underhillian,
ReplyDeleteReading on several sites, you know the public continuing to yammer on about this is getting old, so here I'll add one more.
ReplyDeleteThe director when told about this discrepancy came forward! immediately. So it was a glitch in a way, to explain it in a sound bite and he is non omnipotent.
Rose sharing whiners who chose to work and complaining about mid level that is not on the road just seems like she read something and can not comprehend it.
Gossip Gossip Gossip
You once said ENOUGH! Yet continue to throw some one under the bus. Dd you pass this report to PNJ to exonerate yourself claiming you got bad intel? rhetoric
Enough.
Anonymous 8:00
ReplyDeleteI simply find it odd that nobody would testify that the board was told the truth, if in fact we were told the truth, that all the $5.9 Million was due to a software glitch. So if that was the truth, why would nobody admit that to the investigator and why could he find no proof of that? Again, we rely on staff to give good information, complete information, and accurate information. Here, it appears that legitimate software issues and the problems this created are being conflated with management failure to follow the workflow in order to cover up for management failure to follow the workflow. In other words, just be honest and present the truth is what I would say. Sadly, unless I see something compelling come back to explain the disconnect, the only rational explanation is that we were misled deliberately in order to agree to the write off. Or put another way: Had I known on April 4th what I see is true now, I would have strongly advocated to table the recommendation or I would have voted against it.