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Substance use services report: fewer corrective action items than prior audits, ongoing monitoring and new staff hire
Summary
Plumas County substance use services reported a lighter audit outcome than in prior years (preliminary nine corrective action items across programs), active monitoring visits to contracted providers, and the onboarding of a new clinician, Charles Abernathy Bettis.
Gary, the county’s substance use services administrator, reported June 11 that recent state audits for Drug Medi‑Cal and the Substance Use Block Grant produced far fewer corrective action items than previous years — preliminarily about nine combined — but that multiple open corrective action plan years still require work.
Monitoring and corrective actions: Gary said he will monitor contracted providers in coming weeks (Granite Wellness Centers, Aegis narcotic treatment program and the county’s primary prevention contract). State auditors had combined prior years’ caps and recently re‑separated them into individual corrective action plan years; Gary said he is preparing evidence and CAP responses for 2023–24 and will proceed through earlier years in sequence.
Access and utilization: For May the SUD program had 48 open SUD charts and 30 unduplicated clients served, a penetration rate of about 62 percent; intakes for May rose slightly compared with April. Group services accounted for much of the service volume, and residential placements were not recorded for May (last discharge occurred in March), Gary said.
Staffing: Gary introduced a recent hire, Charles (Charlie) Abernathy Bettis, who joins the SUD team from Nevada County and is finishing training in the county electronic health record. Gary said the new clinician has co‑facilitated groups and will begin individual caseloads within one to two weeks.
Why it matters: The reduced number of audit findings (relative to historically higher counts) suggests program improvements in compliance, but the department remains engaged in multi‑year corrective action work and ongoing contractor monitoring. Staffing additions will increase capacity for treatment delivery and billing.
Ending: Gary said he will continue monitoring contractors, submit required CAP evidence, and onboard the new clinician; no grievances were reported in the SUD program for May.
