The county prosecutor and the Ohio Attorney General have initiated a joint criminal investigation into alleged false spend-down entries made by one or more people who worked for the county agency in 2009 and 2010. The state’s spend-down program allows people with income above Medicaid guidelines to deduct medical expenses from their earnings in order to qualify.
“In September, the prosecutor’s office was notified of the state auditor’s findings concerning unaccounted funds (in 2010),” said Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell in a statement issued Tuesday.
The audit lists five employees whose county IDs were associated with alleged false entries, but the Dayton Daily News is not publishing their names because they currently are not charged with a crime.
According to the audit, December 2010 spend-down receipts received by Warren County Job and Family Services were not posted to all appropriate case files.
The spend-down accounting requires original and duplicate receipts.
The majority of spend-down entries made without an official receipt — but which had a duplicate receipt — were made by the same employee. That employee, according to Warren County Administrator Dave Gully, was fired in April — prior to the investigation — for “incompetence.”
Of the 195 duplicate receipts received, 55 did not have an original receipt and accounted for $16,146; 46 of those receipts were entered by the fired employee.
Another 123 spend-down entries by the fired employee had no support receipts and totaled $34,659.
An additional $24,856 was discovered missing after a review of 100 transactions in 2009 handled by the same employee.
About the Author
