FAMILY RIGHTS LEDGER — CHECK THE BILLING TRAIL
Research checklist | November 2026

Purpose: identify the record that could explain a discrepancy. These are research tests, not findings of fraud or a certified financial audit. Use only records you may access. Keep confidential child-specific records in your private archive.

1. CANDIDACY: Match start/end dates, eligibility, supporting plans and cost allocations. Do not infer that screening resulted in an actual claim.
2. AUTHORITY / INITIAL PLACEMENT: Compare referral, authorization, order, entry date and eligibility determination. Identify the policy version and period.
3. CONTINUING ELIGIBILITY: Match reviews, placement changes, licensing and payment periods.
4. BILLED DAYS: Compare admission, discharge, absence and hospitalization dates with the contract’s bed-hold provisions. Absence alone does not establish an improper charge.
5. SERVICES: Match authorizations, attendance/service logs, units, rates and invoices.
6. DUPLICATE COSTS: Compare funding codes and bundled rates. Two payments do not prove duplicate billing if they pay different permissible costs.
7. DISCHARGE: Compare documented readiness, orders, identified barriers and billed days.
8. SUPPORT COLLECTIONS: Reconcile amounts ordered, collected, retained, distributed, credited and adjusted; consult the applicable period’s policy.
9. ADDITIONAL CHILDREN / INTERSTATE ACTION: Identify the separate intake, factual basis, authority and action. Distinguish information exchange from assessment, placement and transfer.
10. FINANCIAL RELATIONSHIPS: Date board roles, ownership, compensation, contracts, disclosures and official decisions. A connection alone is not proof of improper influence.
11. QUALITY AND PAYMENT: Compare incidents, licensing, corrective action and payment decisions. Record the oversight response and unresolved questions.

RECONCILE BEFORE CONCLUDING
Keep billed, denied, resubmitted, paid, credited and returned amounts separate. A denied invoice is not a paid claim. Federal reimbursement may relate to an underlying state payment; do not count both as separate provider revenue. Revenue is not profit.

FOR EVERY EXCEPTION, RECORD
Question | source/document ID | exact page/row | period | amount/type | explanation or contrary evidence | missing record | resolution/status.

Method adapted from Family Rights Ledger’s public-source documentary review of November 3, 2026. Public starting points:
GAO funding review: https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-25-107467
HHS OIG oversight review: https://oig.hhs.gov/reports/all/2024/many-states-lack-information-to-monitor-maltreatment-in-residential-facilities-for-children-in-foster-care/
State-specific rules must be checked for the relevant date. A reimbursement issue does not by itself resolve custody, jurisdiction or an individual legal claim.

https://familyrightsledger.org/