Federal Reports

Texas did not always make increased Medicaid payments to providers and claim reimbursement in accordance with Federal requirements. Of the $721 million in Federal funds that it received, Texas inappropriately received $20.7 million because (1) it incorrectly claimed the 100-percent matching rate for payments that were only eligible for the regular matching rate and (2) it made payments that were unallowable.

The objective of this audit was to determine whether permit postage and fees, and voided Postage Validation Imprinter (PVI) label refunds were properly issued, supported, and processed at the Topeka, KS, Northpark Station. The PVI is a printing device attached to a point-of-sale terminal that produces a postage label for payment of postage and fees.

The objective of this audit was to determine whether stamps and meter revenue refunds were properly issued, supported, and processed at the Bellmawr, NJ, Main Window. The OIG’s data analytics identified that Bellmawr Main Window had a 128 percent increase in dollars for stamp and meter revenue refunds from April 1 to September 30, 2017, compared to the same period in fiscal year 2016. Of the $72,593 in stamp and meter revenue refunds during the period, the unit recorded $56,335 in Refund Spoiled/Unused Customer Meter Strips and $8,046 in Refund Stamps and Fees.

To listen to a short podcast relating to this report, click the link below.

The Office of the Inspector General conducted an evaluation of Lagoon Creek Combustion Turbine Plant (LCCT) to identify strengths and risks that could impact LCCT’s organizational effectiveness. Our evaluation identified strengths related to (1) teamwork and (2) organizational alignment. However, we also identified issues that could pose risks to LCCT’s effectiveness and its continued ability to meet its responsibilities. These issues related to (1) low morale caused by a lack of accountability and (2) perceptions of unethical behavior.

Our objective was to identify opportunities to improve Surface Visibility (SV) scan compliance at Postal Service processing and distribution centers (P&DCs) in the Capital Metro Area and summarize our prior Western Area SV scanning audit work. This is our second and final report examining SV scanning compliance. We selected the Capital Metro Area for this audit because from fiscal year (FY) 2015, Quarter (Q) 4, to FY 2017, Q4, its average scan compliance rate was about 82 percent, the lowest in the nation. We selected two high-performing sites and two low-performing sites based on their FY 2017 scan compliance, as of July 21, 2017, to identify best practices.

The Indian Health Service's (IHS) travel card program, under which IHS employees are to use Government charge cards for nearly all payments of expenses related to official Government travel, did not always comply with Federal requirements and IHS's own policy. We identified 16 transactions (out of the 151 sampled transactions we tested) that did not comply with Federal requirements and IHS policy regarding proper travel card use. These errors occurred because, although IHS had controls in place to educate cardholders on the requirements for the use of the travel card, the controls did not always prevent misuse of the travel card. Additionally, whereas IHS had controls in place to monitor cardholders, those controls did not always identify noncompliance.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) had policies and procedures in place that were generally effective in ensuring that capitation payments to Medicare Advantage organizations' prescription drug plans and stand-alone prescription drug plans (collectively referred to as "sponsors") for Medicare Part D coverage were not made on behalf of deceased beneficiaries after the individuals' dates of death. These policies and procedures generally ensured that CMS did not make improper capitation payments on behalf of deceased beneficiaries when its data systems indicated at the time of a monthly capitation payment that the beneficiaries in question had died.