(1) When a county requests the department reimburse a county's costs, the county shall:
(a) Make a claim using the state of Washington invoice voucher, Form A 19 1-A;
(b) Attach to the claim necessary documentation, support, and justification materials;
(c) Comply with the department's required use of an auditable, itemized, detailed invoice billed in no more than a one-tenth of an hour increment. Records supporting the billed hours shall be maintained by attorneys, paralegals, investigators and experts for a period of five years after the service is rendered. Such documentation shall include what documents were created, if interviews were conducted, who was interviewed and how;
(d) In the event of a dispute over billed services, produce in camera the records supporting the billed hours to the court for determination of the applicability of any claims of privilege to the records and to decide the issue of payments if the claim of privilege is sustained; and
(e) Include in the invoice the name of the person by whom the costs were incurred and the cause number, when it exists, and identify at which state of the civil commitment process this service was rendered per WAC
388-885-010(2).
(2) The department may subject a county's claim documentation to periodic audit at the department's discretion.
(3) Only an authorized administrator, or the county administrator's designee, may submit to the department a request for a county's cost reimbursement.
(4) A county shall submit a reimbursement claim to the department within thirty days of receipt of itemized expenditures for services incurred to assure proper handling of the claim.
(5) When a county submits a reimbursement claim on a state invoice voucher (Form A-19 1-A) sent to the Special Commitment Center, Attn: Business Office, P.O. Box 88450, Steilacoom, WA 98388-0646.
(6) If the department's reimbursement appropriation becomes exhausted before the end of a biennium, a county may continue to make a claim for reimbursement. The department may use the reimbursement claim to justify a request for adequate department funding during future biennia.
(7) Claims for reimbursement of costs for all items as defined in WAC
388-885-010 or otherwise associated with the subject of this rule will not be accepted if the span of time between the time the services were rendered and the bill was submitted is greater than twelve months.
(8) When the reimbursement fee schedule in WAC
388-885-035 changes following legislative approval there is a transitional period where bills are being received for services rendered before the approved increase to the reimbursement schedule rates, such as, bills received for services rendered shall be paid based on the reimbursement schedule rate that existed at the time services were rendered, not the rate that exists at the time the bill is submitted to SCC.
(9) In submitting bills for reimbursement under this rule, the billing entity agrees to maintain records of their billed services and make those records available for auditing by the department, or other state auditing service, for a period of sixty months following the submission of the bill.
[Statutory Authority: Chapter
71.09 RCW, RCW
72.01.090, 2010 c 28, 2010 c 37, and Washington state supreme court decision No. 80570-9 re Detention of John L. Strand, filed October 8, 2009. WSR 11-10-086, § 388-885-025, filed 5/4/11, effective 6/4/11. Statutory Authority: Chapter
71.09 RCW and RCW
72.01.090. WSR 08-19-042, § 388-885-025, filed 9/11/08, effective 10/12/08. WSR 99-21-002, recodified as § 388-885-025, filed 10/6/99, effective 10/6/99. Statutory Authority: RCW
71.09.050 and
43.20A.050. WSR 94-12-006 (Order 3736), § 275-156-025, filed 5/19/94, effective 6/19/94. Statutory Authority: RCW
43.20A.050. WSR 91-21-027 (Order 3263), § 275-156-025, filed 10/8/91, effective 11/8/91.]
