Financial Best Practices

Financial Best Practices Develop a close working relationships with the Comptroller and DQ Manager and be an active member of the DQAT Discuss all requests for new work centers or closing work centers with them to determine the impact Get to know your operation Visit all the work centers in the main hospital and the core facility Provide training to Clinic Managers and Branch Clinic Managers Analyze your EAS repository data Check your MEWACS data and understand why you have outliers Provide DATA! That is the quickest way to get someone’s attention Align all source files and tables before the beginning of the FY Ensure there is a checklist where YOU as the MEPRS coordinator assign the MEPRS code for any new MEPRS code requests JONs DMHRSi Tasks (ensure new Task is added and associated JON is entered to FASTDATA) CHCS MEPRS Site Definable Table DMLSS Square Footage ASD and Includes and Excludes Review all MEPRS/EAS ECU and Pre-allocation warnings and address them Understand why you have the warning and the impact of not correcting it Save error reports to excel and note on the reports what the correction was DEAR/Financial Pure File Comparison If YTDs don’t equal, either adjust the amounts or re-import the fin file Personnel DEAR – check that civilian labor expenses and obligations match Review EAS repository data for each month a day or two after transmission.

Close Working Relationship with DQAT Involve the DQAT in decisions about new or closing work centers. DQAT members can assist with coordination and training to ensure quality data.

Close Working Relationship with Comptroller The Comptroller owns the MEPRS/EAS financial data. He or she has a vested interest in quality data.

Get to Know your MTF’s Operation Or a Prescription Dispensing Machine? Is there a Pharmacy? There is a Pharmacy work center established for this branch clinic, but the contract for filling the machine and maintaining it is charged to the Core Hospital Pharmacy. Where are the expenses associated with the Prescription Dispensing Machine?

Get to Know Your MTF’s Operation Is the doctor busy? Or are there empty exam rooms? Is a clinic established without a corresponding OPTAR? Is a clinic established for only periodic visits? Does DMLSS have the correct JONs?

Analyze Your Data. Show it to Someone. When you observe something, it changes. The intention to have quality data changes the approach to the data collection and processing. You will get attention and interest in data quality when you show people what the data looks like. Just looking at the data tends to improve data quality.

Analyze Your EAS Repository Data

Review & Understand MEWACS Outliers Oct FY10 MEWACS Outlier Review SEPT FY 09 amount and available FTEs

Review & Understand MEWACS Outliers 8.49% increase over previous month. Pay Table increase of 6.19% plus increase in expense due to 9 additional available FTEs explains the personnel direct increase.

Provide Data Source file and table review. Recommend sharing this data with the Comptroller, the CHCS DB admin and the DQAT, at a minimum? Source file and table review.

Provide Data DQAT; comptroller, etc MEWACS data

Provide Data What are other data sources we can show? What are other data relationships

Align All Source Files and Tables Prior to beginning of FY JONs CHCS Site Definable DMHRSi Tasks ASD Square Footage Begin in July or August Ensure coordination with all stakeholders CHCS Providers/Clinics Ancillaries Surgical Suite/Anesthesia/PACU

Address all MEPRS/EAS ECU and warnings, document corrections and retain Expenses this month but not last month Generally overridden, but you must check workload Pre-allocation errors Workload without expenses Expenses without workload FTEs without workload Workload without FTEs Document changes and retain documentation in excel Later research of discrepancies Reprocessing Financial Reconciliation Audits

Address all MEPRS/EAS ECU and warnings, document corrections and retain

E011 Error Expenses/obligations received for last month but not this month. When we receive this error, our first thought it that the fin file is the correct data. Using the incorrect action/response here results in differences in the financial reconciliation. The fin file contains information from STARS/FL – we have to consider it is correct. Of course, we may have to make adjustments for prior year data or when BJONs have been established incorrectly. DISCUSSION: What is happening here? 1. Why was the information in the APR file but not the MAY (the accounting transaction) (if you answer “expenses are valid” what will EAS do? – add the last month expense to this month’s financials) But that expense wasn’t IN this month’s financials. What are next steps? RESEARCH – HOW? The fin file is correct; it is what we have to reconcile to.

E011 Error APRIL Fin Pure What do we know? We know that the MAY fin file does not have this entry, but that the APR fin file does. We look at the APR fin file and find the entry. What if we don’t find the error in the APR Pure File? Where else could you find it? (DEAR Manual) Clearly one of two things happened: 1. an accounting transaction was made that moved the expense from EKAV. Or 2: you made a manual entry last month for this amount. Where did it go? Ask the fiscal staff (when you are comfortable with this process, you may dispense with this step because you will know that the fin file is correct) APRIL Fin Pure

E011 Error APR Fin File Report MAYR Fin File Report You can also look at the APR and MAY fin file reports. You see the entry in the APR report but not the May report. You are satisfied that this situation represents the correct financials. If you had made the entry in the MANUALs for last month, you would check the DEAR Manual and find it. You would have your previous month’s documentation to tell you why you made that change (perhaps inactive MEPRS code). In any case, since you need the Pure File and the DEAR to match, you would NEVER take action to accept the expense and say expenses are valid! WHY NOT? (Because it would add expense to the financials and would compromise your fin recon) If you need to adjust transfer an expense, you need to make sure that it is already in the fin file and that you transfer that exact amount to ensure both amounts equal. This will occur later in the financial processing.

E011 Error Now that you have done your research on the E011 errors, you are ready to take action. When you click on Adjust Current, EAS is going to adjust the current month’s financial data. ONLY ONE SITUATION CAN YOU DO THIS. What situation and why? Bypass file – but not the recommended way to handle the bypass file. Note that you cannot print these errors as the other ECU reports do. You must use the Comments field to ensure you document your action. This screen is bringing up the YTD amounts, but remember, it is not the YTD amount from this month’s fin file, but from last month’s (because the error was that the expense was in last month but not this month’s file). Discuss the SAG shift from FF and ME to M9 and how to do this. These E011 errors in the ECU do not print to excel as the others do.

E011 Error Don’t put a negative 20 in the YTD actual either. This is telling EAS that the actual YTD amount should be -20. What you want to tell EAS is that the actual YTD amount should be ZERO. To achieve this, you could put -20 in the adjust by field. But I think it is safer to put the ZERO in the Actual YTD. This screen shot has the correct Code and Description, and comments have been added so that the fin audit report will remind you of why you made this entry. In the case of a cost transfer from one BJON MEPRS code to another, where the previous months’ fin file has a record, but the current month’s does not, your comment would be something that explains that the fin file doesn’t contain the record this month due to cost transfer, or SAG shift, etc.

E011 Error Enter 0 (ZERO) in The Actual YTD amounts. Enter a zero in actual YTD. This will provide the zero record that the fin file doesn’t provide. Enter 0 (ZERO) in The Actual YTD amounts.

E011 Error This is exactly what you should do to correct E011 errors.

4th Quarter FY 2010 SAG Shifts Effective July 2010 New SAG DH Several SAG shifts from FF and ME to M9 MEPRS/EAS considerations New SAG DH cannot be added to FY 10 table It will be mapped to M9 in the fin files for 4th quarter SAG shifts from FF to M9 will occur for Operating Management and Printing and Reproduction SAG shift from ME to M9 will occur for certain Coordinated Care JONs. DMHRSi will not be changed for FY 10 Fin file may be impacted Explain the SAG shifts effective early July from FF and ME to M9 and how this may result in this sort of error. Guidance has been issued to explain how to make the correction to E011 error.

4th Quarter FY 2010 SAG Shifts Previous discussion on how to handle E011 error applies here SAG shift may cause E011 errors Ensure you use the correct procedure of adjusting the amount by its negative to ensure that you don’t bring in expense that is incorrect.

Unallocated Expenses Square footage must be assigned in the data set for each work center in order to allocation to occur for overhead accounts Cost centers do not need square footage Utilities Other base operations A branch clinic only had square footage set up in EDBI. Unallocated expenses resulted. All clinical and admin areas need to have square footage assigned in order to overhead to allocate. What does that mean? What MEPRS codes are established at branch clinic? What MEPRS codes need to have square footage in the data set?

DEAR/Pure File Comparison Required as of June FY 10 MEPRS/EAS processing Must be included in financial reconciliation reporting Only difference between DEAR and Pure file should be bypass file entries Run Personnel DEAR to check that civilian labor obligations and expenses are equal.

Review EAS repository data after monthly transmission It seems that the EAS DQ checks don’t always apply and that data does get through that shouldn’t. This is particularly true due to the sensitivity with which EAS applies inactivated MEPRS code rules. For example, if you have an inactivated MEPRS code, but have not put an inactivation date, but instead you put the entire FY, EAS will allow allocation to that code if you are processing a month prior to the actual date of the inactivation. For example, you inactivated a MEPRS code in MAY FY 10, but you are processing NOV FY 10. Even though the code is inactivated, EAS allows allocation because you are processing NOV month rather than MAY month.