Federal Reports

FY 2020 management and performance challenges.

As part of the Office of Inspector General’s effort to provide oversight of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) relief efforts provided by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), we reviewed HUD’s communication to renters regarding the eviction moratorium found in Section 4024. The objective of our review was to highlight the progress HUD has made and identify areas for improvement. We found that HUD provided critical information to many of these renters through its website and published guidance. However, we identified several aspects of HUD’s communication to renters on its website and published guidance that could be strengthened. Further, we identified areas of the joint website that could be improved. While the Section 4024 eviction moratorium expired on July 24, 2020, it is still crucial that HUD have clear, complete, and accessible guidance available to help renters at a time when their health and financial stability may be at risk. If HUD maintains up-to-date and easily accessible information for all impacted renters, including information on any new renter protections, it would help to ensure that renters know their rights, maintain housing stability through the pandemic, and avoid homelessness.

The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) OIG conducted this evaluation to identify any best practices implemented or challenges encountered by NRO Headquarters and selected field sites in responding to the pandemic. Areas of evaluation contained in this report include mission sustainment, policy, leadership, facilities and logistics, health and safety, communications, and human resources. This report is fundamentally informational and contains perspectives and opinions of NRO’s leadership and workforce.

We conducted surveys of GPO’s COVID-19 response and maximum telework status. The report contains our analysis and considerations for GPO Leadership and also contains the raw survey results as an attachment.

The Smithsonian Office of the Inspector General conducted this audit to determine to what extent the Office of Human Resources and the units comply with Smithsonian policies and procedures for hiring Trust employees. This audit did not review the hiring of Trust employees in Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and Smithsonian Enterprises.

Facet-joint injections of an anesthetic with or without a steroid are used to diagnose or treat chronic neck and back pain. To address inappropriate billing for pain management tied to overuse of spinal facet-joint injections, the Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) developed a limitation of coverage.1 The coverage limitation allows physicians to be reimbursed, during a rolling 12-month period,2 for a maximum of five sessions3 in which facet-joint injections are delivered to the lumbar region of the spine (lumber spine) and a maximum of five sessions in which facet-joint injections are delivered to the cervical and thoracic regions of the spine (cervical/thoracic spine).4 (We refer to injection sessions in these two spinal areas during a rolling 12-month period as “selected facet-joint injection sessions.”) However, Noridian Healthcare Solutions, LLC (Noridian), one of the MACs, confirmed that a common error identified in audits it performed during calendar years 2016 through 2018 was that Medicare paid for more than five sessions in which facet-joint injections were delivered to the lumbar or cervical/thoracic spines during a rolling 12-month period. Therefore, we conducted this audit to determine whether Medicare made improper payments for selected facet-joint sessions in the MAC jurisdictions that had a coverage limitation from January 1, 2017, through May 31, 2019 (audit period).