In an Order issued in September, the state Department of Human Services (DHS) cited the Hennepin County Mental Health Center for ninety (90) separately itemized violations of more than two dozen separate statutory requirements.
The County’s Mental Health Center is licensed (Lic. No. 1116952) like any other vendor that bills the state for services and is subject to review. Back in July, DHS performed a license and certification review of the Center. The facility is located on East Lake Street in south Minneapolis, near the Lake Street-Midtown light rail station.
Primarily, the licensing review focused on the Center‘s substance use disorder treatment program.
A correction order was issued (and amended) by DHS in September and included seventeen (17) licensing violations. The Order can be read here or found through the DHS licensing portal.
The 17 violations were further itemized in 45 sub-parts, 46 sub-subparts, and 9 sub-sub-subparts. All told, there were 90 violation items documenting failure to comply with dozens of state statutes. All 90 violations required immediate correction.
I suppose one could characterize the violations as being of the paperwork and documentation variety. But paperwork is important, as I will discuss below.
To me, the most troubling violation was included as No. 1 and reads,
The license holder did not have a procedure that will track and record client attendance at treatment activities, including duration and nature of each treatment service provided to the client.
Really? If you don’t take attendance and don’t record the length and type of treatment services, how can you be assured that billing is done correctly?
DHS ranks as the state’s largest agency. As the largest state subdivision, Hennepin County (all programs) has to rank as the state’s largest vendor.
I can’t help but think that 90 licensing violations in a single audit would put a private-sector license holder in serious jeopardy.
Indeed, your correspondent has been approached with second- and third-hand accounts of widespread overbilling, double billing, and similar malfeasance in Hennepin County programs (plural).
These are the same types of billing practices that garner big headlines and mini documentaries on the 10 o’clock news.
I have no way of independently verifying these anonymous accusations, which include,
- Overbilling (upcoding) for individual clients.
- Duplicate, double- or triple-billing multiple programs for the same service provided to a client.
- Billing for services not provided.
It may seem that one government agency defrauding another would represent a zero-sum game. But if the above examples are true, it’s shifting the burden from one county’s taxpayers to taxpayers in the other 86 counties and the other 49 states. Not to mention the deadweight loss from the bureaucratic bloat involved.
We should also consider the detrimental effects of “rules for thee and not for me.” Government vendors should be held to at least the same standards as private-sector licensees.
Developing…
