Audit: Louisiana DCFS should tighten child welfare payment controls

BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) — Auditors suggested that the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) make improvements to its child welfare payments system.

The audit said some areas of the Tracking, Information, and Payment System (TIPS) could have stronger controls by requiring approval from staff at higher levels than the supervisor for manual payment processing and preventing overpaid services.

The report describes TIPS as the system that DCFS uses to get child welfare payments and track services provided to clients. Two types of providers paid using TIPS are paid providers, which include foster or adoptive parents, and service providers like therapists, residential homes, sitters and daycares.

See auditors’ recommendations and DCFS’s responses:

1. Auditors: “DCFS should require that manual payments be approved at a level higher than a supervisor level.”
   • The agency agreed with this recommendation and stated that it is working with the Office of Technology Services (OTS) to make changes to the system by November.
2. Auditors: “DCFS should ensure that it maintains approval documentation to support child welfare payments.”
   • DCFS agreed with this recommendation and is implementing the SABRE Project to modernize child welfare record management. Employees are slated to start using it in October.
3. Auditors: “DCFS should ensure that services, including those not addressed by the current rate-setting contract, have reasonable standard rates.”
   • DCFS agreed with this recommendation and said it is working with OTS to get a “rate table” in TIPS and is comparing policy-established rates against the Medicaid rates to adjust internal rates.
4. Auditors: “DCFS should ensure that it abides by the rates set in policy.”
   • DCFS agreed with this recommendation and said it is in the process of revising policies for rate-setting to establish defined rates for providers.
5. Auditors: “DCFS should either update TIPS or build controls in a new system to require the number of service hours for services that are paid by the hour, such as using the Service Units field to denote the number of service hours.”
   • DCFS agreed with this recommendation and said it is working with OTS to make changes to require the service unit field to be completed on all payable screens.
6. Auditors: “DCFS should code maximum standard rates into TIPS or a new system for all services based on rates set in policy, such as rates for in-home sitters and restrictive staffing services.”
   • DCFS agreed with this recommendation.
7. Auditors: “DCFS should either create controls in TIPS or build controls into a new system to verify that policy requirements are met, such as ensuring clients with hospital sitter services are in the hospital and that inhome sitters are certified or have a service agreement.”
   • DCFS agreed with this recommendation and said it is working with OTS to make a change to TIPS to verify the Major/Minor code used on the transaction is allowable for the placement type on the date of service.

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