We have written a lot on this blog about the change to the Financial Management Services (FMS) change in Home and Community Based Services and the implementation of Kansas AuthentiCare. This change resulted in a massive overhaul of our Payroll Department and the staff members that work in Payroll have been inundated with new duties.

One of our Payroll staff members, Lisa Cantrell, offers us a glimpse into a day in payroll. I promise that by the time you read it, you will be ready for a nap.

What does Payroll do?

Payroll makes sure the workers are not going over the plan of care, that their hand written in/out times total correctly daily, weekly, and semi-monthly and that the consumer and worker has signed the time sheet daily. We also check to make sure they are performing the duties that were assigned by the targeted case manager.

After getting the time sheets approved, we have to cross reference the numbers of hours being paid to the number of hours being billed. We then have to bill Medicaid, go back and make adjustments for old time sheets turned in, and send out the checks (again double checked for accuracy).

We also have to send out client obligation invoices to those people that are to pay a portion of their care. Once that is all complete, we have other programs that need to be hand billed directly, workers packets to check over before the worker can be hired, and time sheets to send out.

We take calls from SRS, the Housing Authority, and workers needing their weekly and semi-weekly gross incomes. We send out periodic statements to apartment complexes needing to know what people have paid in on their client obligations after getting a release of information statement from the consumer.

Payroll is also responsible for third-party billing for those consumers who have Medicaid in conjunction with another insurance provider. We have to bill them, wait for a denial and then submit the denial before we can be reimbursed. This process required four steps during the month before KS Authenticare. It now requires up to 62 processing steps to achieve the same results.

All of this is accomplished while there are literally hundreds of phone calls coming into Payroll from consumers and Direct Support Workers who have had trouble with the KS AuthentiCare/EVV system, who have forgotten to clock in our out, or who need some other assistance.

Thank you

We want to extend a huge “Thank You” to our Payroll staff for their tireless work to keep things running smoothly, Direct Support Workers paid on time, and acting as the first line in detecting any billing issues. They are truly the backbone of our Home and Community Based Services provision and we are lucky to have the best team out there.