Auditors say mental health missed more than $650,000 in reimbursements

Auditors say the mental health division missed more than $650,000 in bad debt reimbursements over the past five years because of poor management controls and simply not knowing the rules.

Legislative auditors say the federal government will reimburse the state for Medicare bad debt from co-insurance and deductible charges.

Most of the problem occurred at the Northern Nevada Mental Health Institute where auditors say some workers don't have a thorough enough understanding of Medicare rules to get back all the money the state is due.

They said the institute could double the number of doctor and psychiatric services it bills for.

Mental Health deputy Mike Torvinen said one of the problems is getting doctors to properly log the services. He said he has been working on the problem and hopes to recover most of those bad debts accumulated over the past five years.

The audit subcommittee voted to accept the audit report.