Audit  Audit of the Health Policy Commission

In accordance with Section 12 of Chapter 11 of the Massachusetts General Laws, the Office of the State Auditor has conducted a performance audit of the Health Policy Commission (HPC) for the period July 1, 2019 through March 31, 2021. The purpose of this audit was to determine whether HPC¹ administered its Sustainable Healthcare Innovations Fostering Transformation (SHIFT) Care Program–approved grant contracts in accordance with Sections 2GGGG(d), (e), (f), and (i) of Chapter 29 of the General Laws and Section 5 of Title 958 of the Code of Massachusetts Regulations. Funding for the SHIFT Care Program is provided by the Distressed Hospital Trust Fund (DHTF), which was established by Section 2GGGG(a) of Chapter 29 of the General Laws to provide approved grant contracts to certain nonprofit community hospitals. The fund is financed by public and private sources, grants, donations, interest earned on revenue, and other sources. During our audit period, the DHTF had ending balances of $10,231,155 for fiscal year 2020 and $7,329,620 for fiscal year 2021.

Our audit revealed no significant instances of noncompliance by HPC that must be reported under generally accepted government auditing standards.

A PDF Copy of the Audit of the Health Policy Commission is available here.

1.   Generally accepted government auditing standards require that organizations be free from organizational impairments to independence with respect to the entities they audit. Under Section 2(b) of Chapter 6D of the General Laws, HPC’s board consists of 11 members, 3 of whom are appointed by the State Auditor. This disclosure is made for informational purposes only, and this circumstance did not interfere with our ability to perform our audit work and report its results impartially.