AUBURN - The Cayuga County Home Care Agency will try to catch up on its billing records in the coming weeks.

The agency is approximately 90 days behind in Medicaid billing reimbursement, said Elane Daly, director of Health and Human Services for the county, Thursday at the Health and Human Services Committee meeting.

Daly estimates $200,000 per month, or nearly $600,000 in reimbursements.

Because Daly will be using a temp agency to fill the three-week position, she does not need the approval of the committee or the Legislature.

Rather, she wanted to give a heads-up to the committee to expect a line item for the cost of hiring help for the three-week project.

“I just want to get this work done so that we can get our billing up to date,” Daly said.

Ann Petrus, Chairperson of the Health and Human Services Committee, voiced her concern about possible state cuts.

“I would be more concerned the longer we go without getting that support,” said Petrus, R-Brutus.

But Daly said the money is there, it's just an issue of trying to responsibly keep the cash flow going within the home care agency.

Because it's such a short-term project, Daly decided to go through an agency rather than creating a part-time position for three weeks, which would take at least a month to pass through the committees and the Legislature, she said.

She plans on reassigning someone who is already doing clerical work to input the necessary data and submit the forms for reimbursement.

“This was an FYI really, I'm just asking them to support me in getting three weeks of temporary office help so I can get this billing project completed,” Daly said.

The home care agency recently “computerized,” Daly said, but therapists are still doing manual notes that need to be entered into the billing system.

“Until we get them entered in, we can't really bill the full episode payment,” she said.