HR Department Acts On Audit Concerns

BROOKSVILLE - The Human Resources Department on Wednesday started addressing some of the concerns highlighted by an audit by sending 30 to 40 staffers who work with workers' compensation claims to training classes.

The training will center on how best to handle confidentiality and security of sensitive records, a recommendation pointed out in an audit from the Clerk of the Circuit Court's Office.

Interim Human Resources Director Jerry Haines said other procedures have been initiated to address other audit concerns, including going out for bid on an outside firm to handle the administrative end of the job.

The department has a $36,500 contract with Johns Eastern, hired to perform various workers' compensation administrative functions for the department. That contract expires October 2009.

The audit said the department's contract with Johns Eastern contains arbitrary language, was not put out for public bid before it came up for renewal and was not reviewed by county commissioners.

Haines said the HR department, since 1985 when the firm was hired, has routinely gone out for bid on the contracts and the county administrator's office would sign off.

That procedure was in effect when he assumed the interim directorship from former director Barbara Dupre, Haines said.

But Haines said he would abide by the audit and send off future contract proposals to the board of county commissioners.

Starting July 1, workers compensation staffers plan to start routing all legal bills to the county attorney's office, prior to paying Johns Eastern.

"The Johns Eastern contract is of such a nature that it does not fall into any of the exceptions of the county's purchasing and contract requirements," Assistant County Attorney Jon Jouben said.

The audit pointed out a problem with what it calls Johns Eastern's method of "bundling, which determines fees using a preset number of claims, as opposed to a "pay-as-you-go" system, which considers individual claims.

With "bundling," the company sets a fixed price for a certain number of claims - using 125 as the benchmark - and charges that amount regardless of the complexity of the claim.

However, the county's workers comp claims have gone down significantly and are nowhere near 125.

For example, the county processed 37 claims in 2007-08, 91 in 2006-07, and 105 in 2005-06.

Presumably, using the pay-as-you-go system would be cheaper because fewer claims mean less payout to Johns Eastern.

But that is not necessarily the case, Haines said.

Some workers comp claims are more labor intensive and rack up costly doctor bills that the county has to pay, he said. It might end up costing the county more by having the firm go the individual claim route rather than an already agreed-upon price, regardless of the number of claims, he said.

Haines said the audit made many good recommendations, as an audit is supposed to do. However, he doesn't believe there are any major problems that have cost taxpayers money. Many of the concerns have already been addressed - as the audit pointed out.

"From my perspective, I don't think there's anything (extremely) wrong," he said.

Based on a cursory glance at the audit, County Commissioner Rose Rocco said she didn't see any major problems.

An audit, she said, is intended not only to find deficiencies but to recommend efficiencies. It is her understanding that the corrections as suggested by the audit and improvements are already being done, Rocco said.

Circuit Court Clerk Karen Nicolai said she did not think the audit was harsh and was confident that Haines and his staff will make the suggested improvements.