Child Care
Program Integrity, Grants Compliance and Oversight, Rate Setting, and Consulting
Government-sponsored, federally funded child care programs play a pivotal role in supporting families, ensuring the safety and development of children in a nurturing environment, enabling parents to balance work and family responsibilities, and empowering families to achieve financial stability.
Keeping these programs viable and accessible to those who need them the most is critical, especially amid ever-changing rules and scarce resources. In addition, these complex programs include nuanced requirements that touch on different disciplines, each with their own focus and objectives. That’s why states need a trusted partner with the expansive scope of expertise they require and the quality they need, all built on decades of exacting performance.
How Myers and Stauffer Can Help
Child care programs aren’t just about keeping kids safe. They rely on strong compliance and program integrity to operate and receive funding. If payments freeze or regulations fail, it has a domino effect on the entire system. Myers and Stauffer helps states prevent, detect, and fix these issues. We work exclusively with government agencies to support Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) oversight, compliance, and integrity efforts. Here’s how we can help.
Program Integrity Services
CCDF Improper Payments Rate Recording
As a firm, we have more than 20 years of eligibility experience, at both state and federal levels, all of which informs our time-tested and well-honed methodologies for conducting child care assistance improper payment reviews. Backed by trained and experienced professionals, all of whom share the deeply held conviction that what they do matters in the lives of the people our clients serve, our team has the eligibility insight you need and the skill and experience you require.
We have developed streamlined documentation methods, case management and reporting tools, and communication approaches that will ease your administrative and regulatory burdens. Our dashboard gives states real-time trend analysis, which translates directly into more timely mitigation solutions. Read more about our CCDF work here.
Child Nutrition Programs Oversight
For nearly a decade, Myers and Stauffer has helped state agencies ensure oversight of child nutrition programs (CNPs). We have substantial experience in reviewing participant enrollment and attendance records, sign-in and sign-out sheets, and financial records related to providers CNP funding. Additionally, our experienced staff regularly conduct announced and unannounced on-site child and adult care center observations, as well as daycare homes and similar facilities. These on-site observations ensure center compliance with federal and state regulations related to licensing and capacity, meal service, health and safety, civil rights, and accurate claims of child attendance. Our work not only includes routine reviews on a two-year or three-year cycle, but also follow-up reviews and complaint investigations on centers with known compliance issues.
Grants Compliance and Oversight Services
Grant Auditing
We have deep experience working with government agency clients to perform compliance and program integrity audits, as well as operational support services, all to ensure compliance with both the spirit of the grant intention and the letter of its regulatory requirements. From startup and planning to fieldwork and testing to reporting, we manage all aspects of the process.
We have identified hundreds of millions of dollars of inappropriate payments and recoveries, prevented unnecessary expenditures, supported the development of state reimbursement systems, performed eligibility audits/analyses, defended audit findings from providers’ administrative and judicial challenges, and performed data management and analysis services that help clients better manage their programs.
Grant Consulting
Federal grants provide opportunities for state government agencies to supplement their existing funding streams to achieve their goals and effect positive change in the target sectors and populations. While heavily dependent on the originating statute and/or agency program requirements, states leverage these dollars to support government-sponsored health and human-services programs and initiatives.
Our team provides an array of consulting services from the strategic planning and application process to the monitoring and oversight of awarded or existing grant programs. We will work alongside you to help define approaches to implement and manage the grant, develop policies and standard operating procedures, conduct stakeholder engagement, perform programmatic and financial compliance reviews, assess sub-recipient and contractor funding applications, facilitate conversations between the prime recipient and sub-recipients and contractors, and support states in grant fund distribution.
Rate Setting Services
Myers and Stauffer is the premiere rate setting accounting firm for state Medicaid agencies with a team dedicated to public health and human services that provides consulting services related to rate setting, payment methodology design, survey/cost report development and review, and other analytical services.
Our rate setting experience, including program/financial analysis, gives us uncommon insight into the challenges of establishing successful and sustainable reimbursement methodologies. We are familiar with the regulatory, legislative, fiscal, political, and public relations challenges that states face in evaluating reimbursement systems and undertaking large-scale revisions.
Consulting Services
Human-Services Programs
State programs that serve children are designed to strengthen and protect children and families. While the safety and welfare of children is paramount, the programs that serve them are as complex as the needs of the at-risk people they are designed to support.
States can transform their human-services systems through partnership and system developments, creating sustainable systems that help keep children and at-risk adults safe and help families thrive. Challenges include disconnected systems of care where access may be contingent on agency involvement or service arrays not equipped to deal with changes in acuity, needs, and community-based service models. Myers and Stauffer has expertise in all aspects of health and human-services programs, which we use to strengthen and improve state funding mechanisms, program operation and quality monitoring, and regulatory oversight.
Stakeholder Engagement
Myers and Stauffer recognizes that meaningful change is done in partnership with stakeholders. We know that appropriately engaging stakeholders in respectful and collaborative ways both often and early is an investment that will increase buy-in and accelerate advancement towards objectives for your communities.
Virtually all our engagements include activities to solicit stakeholder input on goals, priorities, and challenges regarding health-care delivery systems. We routinely conduct multi-pronged stakeholder engagement activities, such as structured quality workgroups, key informant interviews, traditional public notice and comment processes, statewide informational forums, town hall meetings, focus groups, surveys, social media content development, and more. In doing so, we leverage a variety of engagement mechanisms and prepare reports describing input received, key themes, and recommendations.
Why Myers and Stauffer
Established in 1977, Myers and Stauffer is a nationally based consulting and certified public accounting (CPA) firm. For nearly 50 years, we have worked exclusively with local, state, and federal government health and human-services agencies to help them accomplish their most critical goals for the nation’s most fragile people. Visit our website to learn more about our audit services, program integrity work, consulting services, child care work and grants capabilities.
- Independent National CPA and Consulting Firm. Unlike most firms in our industry, we intentionally restrict our practice to government-sponsored health and human-service programs. We have never accepted any engagements that could create any real or perceived conflicts of interest. We also conduct ourselves according to rigorous professional ethical standards designed to serve the public good, hallmarks of professional CPA standards that make us unique within our business community. We meet all independence standards and can provide unbiased consulting.
- Health IT Systems and Audit Programs. Myers and Stauffer has a meticulous understanding of the state and federal health and human-services environments, claims data, and claims processing systems. We currently receive and maintain copies of data contained in many state information systems and from many health and human-services programs, which has allowed us to develop computer systems and analysis tools to manage large data sets and subject claims to standardized analysis protocols. Our disciplined processes yield reliable and actionable results that make a difference.
- Disciplined Processes, Reliable Results. Diligence, rigor, and discipline define our approach, and we exercise care and caution to demonstrate proper stewardship of the confidence our clients place in us. We have forged strong partnerships with our clients, built on foundations of trust we have strived to earn through our history of strong performance and exacting execution. We are committed to helping them effect positive change in their public health and human-services programs for the people who need them most.
As states strive to strengthen their programs, it is important to plan for and implement approaches consistent with the best and emerging practices, which ensure quality services with innovative features that maximize the use of program dollars.
At Myers and Stauffer, we leverage our health and human services experience to help states develop robust programs built on the bedrocks of sustainable funding and reimbursement, evidence-based processes, and quality assurance, all with an eye toward improving the health and well-being of all fragile populations.
Our understanding of these programs nationwide enables us to draw upon a deep well of expertise in program design, compliance, program integrity, and auditing that informs the custom solutions for our clients’ initiatives in ways that also meet regulatory requirements. The combination of experience, knowledge, skill and innovation promotes the quality, targeted care delivery that drives improved health outcomes and proper spending.
For More Information
Program Integrity Services
CCDF Improper Payments Rate Setting
| Ryan Farrell, CFE, Principal | Emily Wale, CPA, CFE Member |
Child Nutrition Program Oversight
| Melanie Farris, CFE Senior Manager | Colin Diamond Senior Manager |
Grants Compliance and Oversight Services
Grants Auditing
| Tammy Martin, CPA Member | Colleen Lancey, CPA Member |
Grants Consulting
| Bobby Courtney, JD, MPH Principal | Julia Kotchevar, MA Director |
Rate Setting Services
| Timothy Guerrant, CPA Member | Justin Tasch, CPA, CFE Senior Manager |
Consulting Services
| Jerry Dubberly, PharmD, MBA Principal | Julia Kotchevar, MA Director |
