CATTARAUGUS COUNTY
‘Shortfall’ traced to computer glitch
Public health director reports no money actually was lost
OLEAN — An apparent $1.2 million shortfall in the Cattaraugus County Health Department’s 2004 and 2005 accounts receivable has been traced to a computer system that was replaced in 2006.
Public Health Director Barb Hastings told Board of Health members during Wednesday’s monthly meeting that the problem was complicated because the old system couldn’t handle adjustments in Medicaid reimbursements and also was limited in the number of additions it could perform, so some transactions were erroneously reported as accounts receivable.
She said the problem was not immediately recognized by her staff, but a contract auditor located the problem and found the majority of the accounts had been paid, reporting it to the County Legislature during a committee meeting last month when a fund balance adjustment was necessary.
“The impact on their level can’t be minimized but there is no money lost,” she said, adding the department is doing well but is working on some higher-than-usual accounts receivable.
“The unfortunate thing is the effect it had on the county [surplus]. The $1 million they thought they had, they really don’t have,” Hastings told the board.
She said the county administrator’s new plan includes some safeguards in the Health Department to prevent another glitch.
These include the possibility of hiring a home care billing consultant and seeking the Legislature’s approval for accounting write-offs.
In another matter, Environmental Health Director Eric Wohlers said he hopes the board will support a personnel change to convert one of the department’s vacant sanitarian posts to a water specialist to help meet some new ground water regulations for public water supplies.
He said the department has had to test and evaluate public supplies of surface and spring water, but new rules will require testing and treatment of wells and other ground water supplies for viruses as well as bacteria.
The county has 228 regulated public water systems, with 110 of those originating in ground water and built more than 40 years ago. If the change is approved, the position would be funded mostly through the county’s share of state Drinking Water Enhancement Program funds.
In other business Mike Betchelli said an investigation is under way into whether an emergency response plan is in place for a company that contracts to test equipment and chemicals for the federal government at a remote 500-acre site near Ellicottville and West Valley.
The board then approved a new set of home-care charges and received several reports: eight post-exposure rabies cases, mostly due to bats; three salmonella cases during June with testing to see if the strain is connected to the outbreak linked to tomatoes; and 27 oral HIV tests performed with no positive results.
