Federal Reports

The Office of Inspector General examined NASA's management of the land-based Network that provides tracking, telemetry, and command services to 40 NASA science missions operating in low Earth orbit, including its efforts to provide physical and information technology security.

A physical therapist in Texas claimed Medicare reimbursement for outpatient physical therapy services that did not meet Medicare reimbursement requirements in calendar years 2012 and 2013. Specifically, of the 100 beneficiary claim days in our random sample, the therapist properly claimed Medicare reimbursement on 84 beneficiary claim days but improperly claimed Medicare reimbursement on the remaining 16 beneficiary claim days.

Wisconsin Physicians Service's (WPS) (located in Madison, Wisconsin) payments to providers in Jurisdiction 5 (Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska) and Jurisdiction 8 (Indiana and Michigan) for hospital outpatient dental services generally did not comply with Medicare requirements. Of the 100 dental services in our stratified random sample, 95 did not comply with Medicare requirements. Using our sample results, we estimated that WPS improperly paid providers approximately $1.3 million for dental services provided during the period January 1, 2013, through December 31, 2014.

The Missouri Department of Social Services, Missouri HealthNet Division's (State agency) Medicaid payment rates for individualized supporting living (ISL) habilitation services provided and paid for during State fiscal years 2011 through 2013 were not always in accordance with Federal requirements. Specifically, the State agency included costs that were not approved in some of its payment rates for ISL habilitation services. In addition, the State agency included unallowable costs in some of its payment rates for these services. Because these unapproved and unallowable costs were prohibited under Federal requirements, the associated payments were unallowable.

We found that the California Department of Education did not adequately monitor the LEAs in our review to ensure that the LEAs had sufficient fiscal controls for obligating and paying Federal funds to School Improvement Grants contractors. Our review further identified more than $121,000 in unsupported costs and more than $142,000 paid for services provided before contracts or purchase orders were approved.

The Rensselaerville Institute (TRI) is a non-profit, independent educational institution. TRI participates in programs for community development and revitalization projects through grants, contracts and consulting arrangements; working to turn around failing schools, focusing government resources to improve outcomes and coordinating the development and/or improvement of water supply systems in certain small , rural communities.