An audit of the New York State Health Department finds DOH made more than $16.5 million dollars in erroneous payments to home health care providers over a three-and-a-half year period.
State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s office says this was mainly because the agency mistakenly paid for more days of home care than were actually provided. His report recommends a new system for tracking services and paying the care providers. The audit says the existing system is based on 60 day “episodes” of care. If it’s more or less, the home care company gets a pro-rated payment.
DiNapoli says that’s too complicated and the tendency is to mistakenly pay for a full 60 days instead of the actual number of days worked.