Investigation underway in Winter Park foster care agency

WINTER PARK, Fla. — Eyewitness News uncovered one of the largest foster care agencies in Florida is denying allegations of Medicaid fraud.

Officials said the Children’s Home Society of Florida admitted to 9 Investigates they made billing errors totaling $82,000.

Eyewitness News was first tipped off early Wednesday that a whistleblower complaint sparked the investigation at the state’s oldest and largest statewide organization.

The facility based in Winter Park has a stellar reputation, providing care for 50,000 families throughout Florida.

According to the most recent tax returns available, the agency received $7 million in Medicaid and/or Medicare payments from the state and federal government to provide care for those families.

Now, an investigation is underway to find out if the agency over-billed the government for those claims.

A spokesperson later sent Eyewitness News a statement, admitting the agency uncovered billing claim errors, totaling $82,000. In a statement, the agency said:

"In July 2014, Children's Home Society of Florida implemented a new electronic health records and billing system. During this transition, we experienced some implementation challenges related to billing errors which resulted in allegations of fraud. Once management was made aware of the allegations we took several actions:

We immediately reported the allegations to the Inspector General's Office for the Agency for Healthcare Administration.

We engaged outside counsel and an auditing firm to independently investigate the allegations. The investigation concluded there was no fraud committed.

CHS assigned a team comprised of senior management to perform a claim-by-claim review of every transaction dating back to July 2014 when the new billing system was first implemented.

As of today, this review has identified claim errors totaling $82,876. We have repaid $66,821 to date and the remaining $16,055 is in the repayment process.

All claims submitted were for services that were actually provided.

Because there were no findings of fraud, no CHS employees have been disciplined in connection with any part of this investigation. Specifically, Bob Wydra, our former Chief Financial Officer, did not leave CHS as a result of this investigation. We continue to encourage our employees to raise any concerns through an independent whistleblower hotline, which reinforces our commitment to transparency. Going forward, CHS has engaged outside consultants to resolve any outstanding issues with our billing implementation system. We are also providing increased and enhanced training for staff on how to use the new billing system.

CHS has a strong history of caring for children and families across Florida. Our services depend on our strong and committed workforce. We will continue to review our billing implementation systems while maintaining the same high level of quality services to children and families that we've provided for more than 100 years."

Eyewitness News was told the agency implemented a new electronic health records and billing system in 2014. During that process, a spokesperson said there were challenges related to billing errors, but allegations of fraud were unfounded.

Eyewitness News asked if their internal investigation was related to the recent departure of CFO Bob Wydra. A spokesperson said no employees with the Children's Home Society have been disciplined because there were no findings of fraud.

A spokesperson told Eyewitness News Wydra did not leave as a result of the investigation.

The state attorney general would not confirm or deny an ongoing investigation on that level.

They did confirm they have received five complaints against the agency since January of 2015, but wouldn't say what they are related to.

Click here to read about other cases investigated by the state.

Cox Media Group