Report 2022-112 Recommendation 5 Responses

Report 2022-112: CalOptima Health: It Has Accumulated Excessive Surplus Funds and Made Questionable Hiring Decisions (Release Date: May 2023)

Recommendation #5 To: CalOptima Health

To better protect itself from criticism about the objectivity, appropriateness, and transparency of its hiring practices and to help ensure that CalOptima attracts and selects the most qualified candidates, by June 2023 CalOptima's board should adopt a policy that governs its hiring processes for all positions, including executive positions. Such a policy should incorporate best practices, including the minimum length of time that CalOptima will advertise job openings, the minimum number of qualified candidates CalOptima will interview for each position, and a requirement that it will use the same interview method for each candidate for a position. These steps should be documented for each recruitment.

60-Day Agency Response

CalOptima Health developed policy GA.8060: Recruitment, Selection, and Hiring (Attachment A1). This policy incorporates best practices, including the minimum length of time that CalOptima Health will advertise job openings, the minimum number of qualified candidates CalOptima Health will interview for each position, and a requirement that it will use the same interview method for each candidate for a position. CalOptima Health's Board of Directors approved the implementation of this policy on May 4, 2023.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Fully Implemented

CalOptima adopted a policy that incorporates the best practices described in our recommendation, and documented that it followed those practices for a recent recruitment. On that basis, we are assessing this recommendation as fully implemented.

However, we do note that CalOptima's policy allows exceptions from these best practices in certain circumstances, such as when the board hires a CEO and when the CEO determines that waiving the requirements is in the best interests of the agency. Because deviating from these best practices invites criticism and increases the risk that CalOptima does not attract and select the best candidates to serve Orange County residents, we strongly encourage CalOptima's board to monitor and limit deviations from this policy.

All Recommendations in 2022-112

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.