Federal Reports

Effective January 1, 2015, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) established a policy for Medicare to pay under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) for chronic care management (CCM) services rendered to beneficiaries whose medical conditions meet certain criteria. Before that effective date, physicians did not have the ability to bill separately for typical non-face-to-face care management services provided to these beneficiaries. CCM payments are at a higher risk for overpayments compared with payments for more established Medicare services. CCM services are a relatively new category of Medicare-covered services and have multiple restrictions on when and how they can be billed.

HHS codified the Uniform Guidance at 45 CFR part 75, which governs awards and award increments made on or after December 26, 2014. The new rule requires prime Federal award recipients to perform pre-award subrecipient risk assessments and monitor the programmatic activities of subrecipients throughout the life of each subaward.

These challenges illustrate the most significant areas the Office of Inspector General (OIG) believes need improvement for the Peace Corps to effectively manage its resources and minimize the potential for fraud, waste, and abuse occurring in its operations. Addressing the issues related to these challenge areas will enable the agency to increase operational efficiencies and improve mission effectiveness.

The objectives of this performance audit were to assess the completeness, timeliness, quality, and accuracy of Fiscal Year 2019, First Quarter financial and award data submitted for publication on USAspending.gov in accordance with the DATA Act and to assess the Peace Corps’ compliance with use of the Government-wide financial data standards established by the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of the Treasury. While the Peace Corps’ FY 2019, Q1 DATA Act submission was of high quality, the agency lacks a comprehensive data quality plan outlining the risks and what mitigating controls it has in place to demonstrate that data submitted is of high quality.

At the time of our onsite work in July 2017, Box Elder County had not awarded any contracts under this grant. Therefore, we could not determine whether the County had complied with Federal procurement regulations. However, in reviewing Box Elder County’s written procurement policies and procedures we noted the County did not include procedures to ensure opportunities for small and minority businesses, women’s business enterprises, and labor surplus area firms to bid for federally funded work. In addition, Box Elder County’s procurement policies did not require federally mandated provisions be incorporated in all contracts funded by Federal grants. In response to our review, Box Elder County revised its procurement policies and procedures to include these Federal procurement requirements. Consequently, we made no recommendations.