Office of Financial Recovery

More About Our Recovery Services: How to Find Us, Who to Call

This information has been prepared for those who want to know more about our services, or would like to reach us directly. Our office is located in Olympia, Washington. To schedule an appointment, or reach us by phone, please call 360-664-5700, 1-800-562-6114, or TTY WA 1-800-833-6388.

Mailing Address:

PO Box 9501
Olympia, WA 98507-9501

Developmental Disabilities Program

OFR is responsible for the billing and collections for the cost of care for individuals living at the four state-operated Residential Habilitation Centers (RHC's). The Community Service Office (CSO), determines Medicaid eligibility, once the eligibility is determined a Notice and Finding of Responsibility (NFR) is established for individuals with private participation. The NFR becomes the basis for recovery from first party resources. As financial resources for the residents change, the CSO's provide award letters to OFR to update or modify private liability amounts. The CSO's conduct annual reviews to help ensure the appropriate level of benefits are maintained. Each month, Medicaid and private billings are generated for residents with benefits. OFR monitors all cases to ensure payments are received.

In addition to the four RHC's, the Division of Developmental Disabilities manages a community-based State Operated Living Alternatives (SOLA) program. The SOLA facilities offer options to persons with developmental disabilities to ensure safe care and maximum independence in their living arrangements. The Community Service Office (CSO) determines Medicaid eligibility. OFR monitors SOLA accounts for Medicaid payments for the cost of services provided at the SOLA facilities.

OFR is responsible for verifying and maintaining accurate census data for both the RHC's and SOLA's to ensure correct billing to Medicaid.

For more information call: 360-664-5700, 1-800-562-6114, or TTY WA 1-800-833-6388

Estate Recovery

OFR recovers correctly paid long-term care services, Medicaid assistance, and related medical charges from the estates of decedents. Recovery may be made from estates of recipients of state-funded long-term care services (without regard to age) and Medicaid services aged 55 and older at the time of death.

Upon receiving notice of a recipient's death, OFR investigates if the decedent's estate has resources and whether a claim to recover costs of service provided to the decedent can be made within the parameters of the estate recovery statute. If these conditions are met, a lien is filed against the decedent's property and/or a Notice to the Creditor claim is filed against the decedent's estate in probate court. HRSA and ADSA rely on these funds to help offset the cost of medical and personal care delivered to current recipients

For more information call: 360-664-5700, 1-800-562-6114, or TTY WA 1-800-833-6388

Vendor Recovery

OFR recovers debts due DSHS from vendors who provide services to the department or DSHS clients. These debts include vendor overpayments, nursing home cost settlements, civil fines, and certification fees. Vendor overpayments can occur in any DSHS program. Overpayments are discovered through program or performance audits, computer records (Payment Reliability Program), program staff reviews, and vendors.

Recovery actions may include recoupment from future payments, negotiating repayment agreements, legal actions, demands against security posted by vendors, or filing liens. The vendor unit also recovers miscellaneous debts due the department such as employee overpayments and overpayments established by the Child Welfare Training and Advancement Program (CWTAP)

For more information call: 360-664-5700, 1-800-562-6114, or TTY WA 1-800-833-6388

Supplemental Security

OFR manages the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) interim assistance reimbursement program. The state of Washington has an agreement with the federal Department of Health and Human Services, Social Security Administration (SSA) to provide interim assistance to incapacitated adults without dependents under the General Assistance-Unemployable program while their SSI application is pending.

For more information call: 360-664-5700, 1-800-562-6114, or TTY WA 1-800-833-6388

Mental Health

OFR manages the recovery for patient care provided at state psychiatric hospitals: Admission to a state hospital is based on a need for services, not on the ability to pay for those services. A patient's liability for cost of care and ability to pay is determined by OFR staff based on the patient's or other responsible party's financial resources. When available, third party resources such as Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance are billed first.

Financial resources include cash, negotiable assets, real property, wages, federal entitlements, and private medical insurance. After financial resources have been investigated and identified, a Notice and Finding of Responsibility (NFR) is served which establishes the legal basis for collection and enforcement of first party liability.

For more information call: 360-664-5700, 1-800-562-6114, or TTY WA 1-800-833-6388

Medical Premiums

OFR manages billing and accounting for two medical assistance programs administered by Health Care Authority; the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and Healthcare for Workers with Disabilities (HWD) programs.

Together, these programs provide medical coverage for over 30,000 children and adults who would otherwise not have health insurance. OFR's success and the value of these programs have resulted in the development of a similar program that will bring subsidized medical insurance to over 60,000 Washington state residents.

For more information call: 360-664-5700, 1-800-562-6114, or TTY WA 1-800-833-6388

Annual License Fees

OFR partners with the Department of Early Learning (DEL) to provide billing services for over 5,000 child care facility license fees. DEL Licensors can then focus on ensuring children in licensed care are in safe, healthy and nurturing places. This supports DEL’s mission to offer programs and services that support healthy child development and school readiness for the approximately 90,000 children born in Washington each year.

OFR also provides billing services to DSHS Aging and Long-Term Support Administration (ALTSA) for over 3,500 residential facility license fees. This supports ALTSA’s mission to help people with support needs to live at home or in community settings by monitoring and ensuring the quality of community-based and certified residential services. ALTSA provides services to more than 60,000 seniors and individuals with disabilities.

For more information call: 360-664-5700, 1-800-562-6114, or TTY WA 1-800-833-6388

Time Loss Program

OFR manages recoupments made from the Labor and Industries (L&I) Time Loss benefits that duplicate financial assistance paid to clients by DSHS identification of duplicated benefits is accomplished in several ways:

• CSO caseworker notification to OFR of potential time loss benefits
• Computer interface with L&I
• Claims manager and other inquiries

Duplicated benefit amounts are computed by OFR, which files liens against the time loss benefit. L&I deducts the OFR claim amount from the client's Time Loss benefits.

For more information call: 360-664-5700, 1-800-562-6114, or TTY WA 1-800-833-6388

Client Assistance

OFR is responsible for the recovery of financial, medical, social services, and food assistance overpayments from DSHS clients.

The Community Service Office (CSO) discovers the overpayment, notifies the client, and refers the overpayment to OFR. For clients receiving financial assistance, a deduction may be taken from their monthly grant or when receiving food assistance from their allotment. For clients no longer receiving assistance, other administrative and judicial recovery actions may be taken.

The food assistance program is federally funded. Therefore, federal payments including income tax refunds, wages, and social security benefits can be offset to repay delinquent food assistance debts through the Treasury Offset Program (TOP).

Most food assistance recoveries are forwarded to the federal government but a percentage of each dollar collected for Intentional Program Violations and Inadvertent Household Error overpayments is retained by OFR to help with administrative costs.

For more information call: 360-664-5700, 1-800-562-6114, or TTY WA 1-800-833-6388