Audit of Cash and Medical Assistance Under the Refugee Resettlement Program in the State of Florida

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

This final audit report points out that the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services (HRS) made cash and medical assistance payments to refugees who were not eligible for assistance and in a few instances assistance was erroneously provided to nonrefugees. This occurred primarily because the HRS did not have edits in its computerized payment system to identify refugees whose eligibility period had expired. We recommended procedural changes to improve HRS' administration of the refugee resettlement program. We also recommended a financial adjustment of $1,112,350 for the ineligible cash and medical assistance payments.