News photo by Kayla Wikaryasz On Tuesday, District Health Department No. 4 (DHD4) Health Board members and leadership met in Cheboygan for its monthly meeting. Members and leadership discussed the progress of the 2024 audit.

ALPENA — District Health Department No. 4 (DHD4) can breathe easy now that its 2024 audit is nearing completion. Finance and Human Resource Director Michelle Konwinski told Health Board members on Tuesday in Cheboygan that they can expect to receive the 2024 audit by the end of the month.

Konwinski told board members that the 2024 medicaid cost reimbursement reports have been submitted and the department’s auditor is nearing completion of their audit. She said that this is a step in a positive direction.

“(The auditor) can absolutely promise that that audit will be issued by the end of this month,” Konwinski said. “So, good turnaround time here. We can breathe.”

She added that the 2025 audit will likely be completed by the end of September.

Konwinski said that the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) issues Medicaid payments for services that DHD4 provides, and in return DHD4 must complete reimbursement reports. She said that MDHHS’s payments do not act like grants in that DHD4 is awarded money and that money is spent within the parameters of that grant.

For Medicaid, MDHHS issues interim payments throughout the year. She explained that those payments are reported as a liability, and not “earned,” until the reports are completed. Consequently, an audit cannot be completed until those reports are submitted and accepted.

Konwinski told board members that previous leadership, before she was employed with DHD4, had received requests to complete those reports following the department’s first single audit in 2023.

“They absolutely had multiple, multiple requests,” she said. “They were in constant contact with the prior leaders.”

Before 2023, DHD4 had its audit included with Alpena County’s audit.

Konwinski said that when she took her job in July 2025, the medicaid reports for FY 2022, FY 2023, and FY 2024 were past due. In order to move forward with the 2024 audit, she had to retroactively complete those reports for each delinquent year.

Konwinski added that DHD4 will receive $58,000 for its 2024 medicaid report, though DHD4 is currently waiting on that payment.

Konwinski stated that the Medicaid reimbursement reports for 2022 and 2023 were completed and the department had received those payments. In total, the department received $204,519.09 for 2022 and $102,960.95 for 2023, for a grand total of $307,480.04.

Looking to the future, board members discussed the option of returning to its previous arrangement to be included in the Alpena County audit. Since 2023, DHD4 has completed its own audit separate from Alpena County.

Konwinski said that this arrangement would be a cheaper option, but would be less thorough.

“We are certainly willing to go back to being part of the Alpena County audit,” she said. “It would, number one, save us some money.”

She added that there would be oversight by the county administrator, but a single audit would provide more information.

“You do get a more in depth audit if we’re doing a single audit,” Konwinski explained. “So that’s certainly a trade-off.”

Board members plan on discussing the potential of returning to Alpena County, for its audit, next month.

Kayla Wikaryasz can be reached at 989-358-5688 or kwikaryasz@TheAlpenaNews.com.