Summary

LicenseEase is an integrated application package that assists the Agency for Health Care Administration (Agency) in administering the licensing and regulatory process for various types of health care and managed care facilities.  LicenseEase controls,  among others, application and fee processing, license issuance, complaint and inspection tracking, and discipline and compliance monitoring.  

LicenseEase is an upgrade of the Florida Regulatory Administration Enforcement System (FRAES) and was implemented in June 2002.  

Our audit of LicenseEase focused on evaluating selected information technology (IT) functions, determining the effectiveness of general and application controls, determining whether LicenseEase was appropriately procured, determining whether contractual agreements executed were sufficient to ensure the provision of required deliverables to the Agency, and determining management’s awareness of, and actions taken regarding, the HIPAA legislation.

 As described below, we noted deficiencies in certain management controls related to LicenseEase.

• The Agency did not have a complete and tested IT disaster recovery plan.

• There was no reconciliation performed between LicenseEase and the Florida Accounting Information Resource Subsystem (FLAIR) to ensure that the moneys collected for licensures as recorded in LicenseEase were appropriately recorded in FLAIR.

• Improvments were needed in the Agency’s IT risk management practices and in certain security controls protecting LicenseEase. 

The Secretary’s and Chief Information Officer’s responses can be viewed in their entirety on the Auditor General Web site.