Assembly Chief Clerk
208 Risser Justice Center
Madison, WI 53707
Dear Mr. Fuller:
I write to request that you add my name as a co-sponsor of Assembly Bill 186, relating to state procurement of contractual services. Assembly Bill 186 is being sponsored by Representative Mark Pocan. For your information, I have already been added as a co-sponsor of the Senate companion bill, Senate Bill 98.
Thank you for your assistance in this matter. If you have any questions, please contact my office directly.
Sincerely,
Senator Spencer Coggs
6th Senate District
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May 16, 2005
Mr. Patrick Fuller
Assembly Chief Clerk
208 Risser Justice Center
Madison, WI 53707
Dear Chief Clerk Fuller:
Please add my name as a co-sponsor to Assembly Bill 420. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact my office. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Scott Gunderson
State Representative
83rd Assembly District
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Agency Reports
State of Wisconsin
Legislative Audit Bureau
Madison
May 13, 2005
To the Honorable, the Legislature:
We have completed an annual financial audit of the Department of Employee Trust Funds, as requested by the Department and to fulfill our audit requirements under s.
13.94(1)(dd), Wis. Stats. The audit covered calendar year 2003. The statements and our unqualified opinion on them are included in the Department's recently issued financial report, which provides information on the financial position and activity of various benefit programs available to public employees.
Most of the Department's programs reported positive financial results in 2003. The State's issuance of appropriation bonds at the end of 2003 to finance payment of its liabilities for the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) and the Accumulated Sick Leave Conversion Credit program significantly improved the financial position of both of these programs. However, employers have experienced recent increases in WRS contribution rates as a result of investment experience and benefit changes. The maturation of the WRS presents challenges for management of the system in the future.
In 2002, the Department began work on a new benefit payment system. However, after experiencing ongoing difficulties and delays in the project and incurring $3.9 million in costs, the Department terminated contracts for the development of the new system in 2004. Subsequently, it contracted with another consulting firm, at a contract amount of $198,000, to assess the project. Several contributing factors were identified, including inadequate project management by the Department, insufficient technical skills by the project team, and failure by an external project monitoring firm to complete its intended role. In February 2005, the Department contracted with a new firm, at a contract amount of $4.5 million, to implement the new payment system incrementally.
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Finally, accompanying this letter is a management letter we provided to the Department, which includes an auditor's report on internal control and compliance, as required by Government Auditing Standards. We did not identify any control or compliance concerns required to be reported under these standards.
We appreciate the courtesy and cooperation extended to us by the Department's staff during our audit.
Sincerely,
Janice Mueller
State Auditor
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State of Wisconsin
Legislative Audit Bureau
Madison
May 17, 2005
To the Honorable, the Legislature:
At the request of the Department of Health and Family Services (DHFS), we have completed a financial audit of the Health Insurance Risk-Sharing Plan (HIRSP) for fiscal year (FY) 2003-04. HIRSP provides medical and prescription drug insurance for almost 19,000 policyholders who are unable to obtain coverage in the private market or who lost employer-sponsored group health insurance. We have provided an unqualified opinion on HIRSP's financial statements.
HIRSP's financial position continued to improve during FY 2003-04. After several years of accounting deficits, the program had a positive accounting balance at June 30, 2004. The program's unrestricted net asset balance was $6.8 million on June 30, 2004. Policyholder enrollment continued to increase during our audit period, with an increase of 8.1 percent. However, we note that growth in enrollment has slowed in the first nine months of FY 2004-05.
Net claims costs increased by 21.0 percent during FY 2003-04. In response to increasing program costs, DHFS and HIRSP's Board of Governors increased the usual and customary discounts applied to medical bills. This had the effect of reducing the amount of program costs shared by policyholders, insurers, and health care providers. Further, proposed statutory changes to address a technical issue in HIRSP's statutory funding formula are included in the 2005-07 biennial budget bill, 2005 Assembly Bill 100.
We identified two types of claims errors during our audit. First, pharmacy claims totaling $210,689 were inappropriately paid on behalf of 302 terminated policyholders. DHFS has withheld payment to the former plan administrator for the inappropriate payments. Second, policyholder deductibles were not consistently carried forward between calendar years, as required by statute. As a result, 1,582 policyholders overpaid their deductibles by a total of $327,699. We recommend that DHFS take steps to provide refunds to policyholders who have overpaid their deductibles and ensure that the new plan administrator that began administering HIRSP in April establishes procedures to properly apply deductibles between years.
We appreciate the courtesy and cooperation extended to us by DHFS and the plan administrator for HIRSP. A response from DHFS follows the appendix.
Respectfully submitted,
Janice Mueller
State Auditor
