The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to audit L.A. Care, a nonprofit health plan that administers more than $4 billion in public funds and manages health care and Medi-Cal coverage for more than 1.6 million residents.
Supervisor Michael Antonovich, recently appointed to the health plan’s Board of Governors, said state law requires the County Auditor-Controller to conduct annual audits. None have been done since the plan’s inception in 1994, he said.
“These long-overdue audits are necessary to ensure proper expenditures of taxpayer dollars,” Antonovich said.
Auditor-Controller John Naimo, who replaced Wendy Watanabe when she retired from the post last year, said his office received independently audited financial statements from L.A. Care for 2013 and was expecting 2014 statements shortly.
Naimo will report back in 30 days with a plan of how to do the audits, which is meant to ensure that taxpayer money is being spent as intended.
— City News Service