By:  Diane Benjamin

I reported in this story the McLean County Nursing Home was forced to repay $244,195 to the State of Illinois as a result of an audit. The Illinois Department of Public Health claimed the State overpaid them.  https://blnnews.com/2020/04/27/mclean-county-nursing-home-fact-left-out/

The County was upset and blamed the Administrator (who has since resigned) for failing to plan this expense.  Many at the County level would rather not be in the nursing home business, this charge-back provided ammunition for their stance.

This got me wondering how many other nursing homes were overpaid and forced to repay the State.  It took one day short of a month to get that information by FOIA.

Keep in mind when the State conducts an audit it is only for 18 months.  Any over-payments outside that 18 months are not reclaimed by the State.  The audits only happen about every 5 years.

In 2018 the State audited 120 facilities.  They billed those facilities a total of $8,873,638.

In 2019 the State audited 111 facilities.  They billed those facilities a total of $7,699,157.

In addition, 19 In-House audits were conducted in FY 2018 and 2019.  17 of those facilities were billed a total of $321,376.

I have another document listing 310 facilities.  The audit type is listed as RAC, that stands for Recovery Audit Contractors. (outsourced) These facilities  were billed $11,584,965 of which $8,873,638 has been repaid.

The grand total of money requested returned to the State is:

$28,479,136

If audits are only conducted every 5 years (60 months) and only 18 months are audited, that means 42 months are never audited.

How much money will the State of Illinois NEVER recover? 

$100 million?  More?

Maybe McLean County would not have harassed the former administrator (video of health committee meeting) if they had bothered to find out overpaying and requesting money back is how the State of Illinois operates.

The FOIA cover letter states a final determination letter is sent to facilities.  If the facility doesn’t respond or is unable to pay the State will sue them:  IDPH FOIA #20-109 Benjamin

Illinois doesn’t need a progressive tax to increase

what they steal from citizens. 

They need to manage what they already have more responsibly.  

See the documents here:

CPA LTC Audits for Fiscal Year 2018

CPA LTC Audits for Fiscal Year 2019

IN HOUSE Completed LTC Audits for FY 2018 and FY 2019

LTCAuditsFY1819

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