Officials Hopeful a Refund Won’t Be Demanded

Two Ventura County officials visited federal authorities in San Francisco on Thursday in an attempt to discourage them from demanding reimbursement of millions in medical payments made while the county improperly merged its welfare and mental health agencies.

After the meeting, Chief Administrative Officer Lin Koester and Supervisor John Flynn both expressed optimism that the county would not be ordered to repay the Medicare and Medicaid funds as a result of the merger.

It was Koester’s third and Flynn’s second trip to the Health Care and Financing Administration office in San Francisco since the county merged its mental health and welfare services departments last April.

Creating a so-called superagency known as the Human Services Agency was designed to improve care of the mentally ill. But in November, the federal government warned that the merger violated Medicare and Medicaid billing rules. As a result, the county dismantled the agency Dec. 22.

With as much as $15 million at stake, Koester and Flynn met with top federal health care administrators who will ultimately decide whether to demand the reimbursement.

“I really feel encouraged after this meeting,” Flynn said. “These are not evil people looking to punish us. They’re looking to help us. It’s a friendly relationship, not an adversarial one.”

Koester, too, was confident.

“I’m optimistic that they are there to help us,” Koester said. “It was very positive. They want to work with us without antagonism.”

Janice Caldwell, a federal health administrator who met with Koester and Flynn, said the agency is “still sorting through things.”

Her office is waiting for an audit of the Ventura County Medical Center to be completed before making any decision. Federal officials also are awaiting the results of a survey of doctors and hospital administrators about department operations before and after the merger, she said.

A final decision will not be made for some time, she added.

“It may be later than April,” Caldwell said. “The meeting went beautifully. Obviously they are very concerned, but we couldn’t tell them how the decision will go.”