Standards for Issuance of an Audit Report for a Home Office

120.6 – Standards for Issuance of an Audit Report for a Home Office (Rev. 60, Issued: 11-26-04, Effective: 10-01-04, Implementation: 01-24-05) The responsible/designated contractor will issue an audit report if it audits a home office cost statement. While it is appropriate to use the general format of the sample “Form of Report on Audit of Medicare Cost Report” (see Exhibit VII in §170 of this chapter) for a home office cost statement, the contractor should modify the language of the audit report to reflect this type of entity. For example, a home office is not a provider of Medicare services receiving direct payment from the Medicare program. Therefore, the reference to payment amounts in the second and fourth paragraphs of the sample audit report is inappropriate under these circumstances. Similarly, the contractor should change references to "cost report" and “provider” to "home office cost statement" and “home office”. Furthermore, the contractor must substitute the following elements in the audit report for home office in place to similar elements related to the cost report. • If the report relates to a home office cost statement, a statement that GAS standards require the contractor to plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the Medicare home office cost statement is prepared in accordance with Medicare laws, regulations, and instructions, and • A statement that the Medicare home office is responsible for compliance with Medicare laws, regulations, and instructions.