Throughout the year we receive
numerous requests from agencies asking where is their reimbursement,
especially at this time of year. We’d like to be able to answer “the check’s
in the mail”, but that is not always the case. There are many reasons why an
agency may not have received their reimbursement. Below are some of the main
reasons.
$Agreement
not approved – Reimbursements cannot be processed unless there is a
currently approved agreement on file. With October being the beginning of
another agreement year, there are numerous agreements that have not been
completely approved by our office. In most cases we are waiting for one or
two items of information from the agency before the agreement can be approved.
$October
Survey not completed – November is the time of year when agencies on
school lunch and breakfast need to submit their October Survey data.
Reimbursements are not processed until an agency’s October Survey is
submitted.
$Claim
submitted late - Claims are due by the 10th of the month to be
processed with that month’s reimbursement. Many times the claims are not
received by our office until after the cutoff date. If time allows we will
process claims received after the tenth if there are no errors on the claim
and it does not hold up processing the other claims.
$Claim
not received – Claim are sometimes lost and not received by our office.
This can happen at different levels, either in fax transmission, through the
mail, never submitted or getting misdirected.
$Reimbursement
check lost – Sometimes the reimbursement is processed but the warrant is
lost. It may have been lost by the post office, or misdirected at the
agency’s office.
$Processing
delays – Last, but not least, as much as we try, sometimes the
reimbursement processing is delayed. The reimbursement process goes through
several steps to ensure accuracy and accountability before a warrant is
issued. At each step, processing depends upon a person’s schedule and
workload. Some steps are within our department and others are outside our
department. Therefore, we do not have as much control over the process as we
would like. In most cases we try to have reimbursements processed by the 20th
of the month or shortly thereafter.
Bob
Adams, Accountant
Department of Education
Finance & Management
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