The parent company of a Tennessee nursing home plans to contest state audit findings that say it inflated expenses to boost Medicaid reimbursements.
“We intend to appeal these and we expect our position to be upheld,” Douglas Mittleider, president of AltaCare Corporation, told McKnight’s.
AltaCare owns the Cambridge House, a nursing home in Bristol, TN. A recently published audit by the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office found that the Georgia-based company included about $3.2 million of non-allowable home office expenses on the facility’s cost reports submitted to the state for fiscal years 2014, 2015 and 2016.
Cost reports are used to calculate a nursing facility’s Medicaid reimbursement rates and should include “reasonable and allowable” expenses that are in compliance with state and federal rules and reimbursement principles.
Non-allowable expenses submitted included unsupported legal expenses, expenses not related to AltaCare and personal expenses of Mittleider, the report stated.
The audit estimated that the state’s Medicaid program overpaid the nursing facility by about $325,000 between July 2015 and June 2018. The state recommended that the company “should include only allowable expenses on the home office cost report” and “all reported expenses should be adequately supported, related to patient care, and in compliance with other applicable regulations.”
In its response, the company said the audit report “contains findings that were not disclosed to or discussed with management” prior to its release and it plans to appeal the findings.
