State auditors identified several flawed practices within the Southwest Utah Public Health Department during a review conducted after a couple former agency employees were charged with Medicaid fraud.
The health care workers, Todd Alan Stirling and Russell Amon Hinton, are accused of making 1,300 false claims to Medicaid, according to charging documents.
The audit determined the illicit activity was possible because of inadequate supervision by the health department’s director, a failure to follow policies and Hinton’s dual roles as human resources director and manager of the department’s accounts payable. The collusion between Hinton and Stirling, the former nursing director, also enabled them to divert the funds, according to the report.