AUDIT COMMITTEE SUMMARY
October 15, 2019
Audit of San Antonio Metropolitan Health District Oral Health Program
Report Issued September 19, 2019
Audit Objective
Determine if the Oral Health program is adequately managed and in compliance with policies, contracts, and grant requirements.
Background
The Oral Health Program assists children with unmet dental needs by providing services including dental evaluations, fluoride treatment, sealants, education, and financial assistance for additional dental services.
Through its Miles of Smiles program and partnerships with Head Start agencies, Oral Health sets up mobile clinics in local schools and preschool centers. The children receive evaluations, treatment, and education to reduce and prevent dental issues. In addition to providing limited clinical treatment, Oral Health staff provides information and referrals to the participants.
Oral Health staff assist parents or guardians in obtaining funds for treatment through the Title V program. Monitoring of performance is performed by the program liaisons. Additionally, the department fiscal administrator and a fiscal analyst oversee the monitoring of budgets and the invoicing of partner agencies. The total program-funding budget for FY 2019 was approximately $2.5 million.
Scope and Methodology
The audit scope was from September 2018 through April 2019 and included the prior year’s performance goals. We reviewed proper licenses, training and professional liability for the dentists, hygienists, and assistants. We reviewed payment request for adequate support. We also reviewed for appropriate safeguards surrounding protected health information.
Conclusions
Metro Health’s Oral Health program is adequately managed and in compliance with policies, contracts, and grant requirements. The Oral Health program has adequate controls in place for monitoring program performance, reimbursement requests, and qualifications and training for clinical staff.
However, we identified areas within Oral Health’s administration in need of improvement. We observed a lack of controls related to physical and user access and lack of procedures to verify professional liability insurance.
We made recommendations to address the opportunities. Management agreed with the recommendations and developed positive corrective action plans.