The Chicago Department of Public Health lost more than $1 million in state funding by failing to fix computer problems with its billing system, public records show, sparking a funding crisis and the scheduled closure of four South Side mental health centers today.
City officials have previously blamed the closures in large part on state budget cutbacks.
But a trail of official paperwork, obtained by the Daily News through the Freedom of Information Act, shows that the department’s new computerized billing system was so flawed that patient bills weren’t submitted to the state for six months in 2008.
Billing the state was crucial to getting funds, because of the way the state allocates dollars for mental health services.
The city's current-year state payments are based on monthly reimbursements for service. When the state received no bills from the city for the last four months of the previous fiscal year, it amended the contract it had with the city to reflect the city's apparent lesser need for funds.
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