Federal Reports

Both the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) policies and procedures to ensure that payments are not made for Medicare services rendered to incarcerated beneficiaries and its planned revisions to those policies and procedures did not comply with Medicare requirements.

CMS had policies and procedures to ensure that payments were not made for Medicare services ostensibly rendered to deceased individuals. These policies and procedures generally ensured that CMS did not make improper payments when its data systems indicated at the time a claim was processed that the individual had died before the claimed date of service. These policies and procedures also ensured that CMS correctly identified and recouped improper payments for almost all of the cases in which the Enrollment Database (EDB) was updated with date-of-death information after the claims had been processed and paid.

We conducted this study and its companion, Indian Health Service Hospitals: Longstanding Challenges Warrant Focused Attention to Support Quality Care (OEI 06 14 00011), in response to concerns about the care provided in IHS hospitals. Reports of inadequate health care services for American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) have concerned the Federal Government for almost a century. IHS is responsible for providing health services to the 567 federally recognized tribes of AI/ANs. As part of its service, IHS directly operates 28 acute-care hospitals. IHS requires its hospitals to be accredited by a nationally recognized organization (or certified by Medicare) and to comply with the Medicare Hospital Conditions of Participation (CoPs). OIG is committed to continued work to improve patient care provided in IHS hospitals. Upcoming OIG work includes an IHS management review and a medical review focusing on patient safety in IHS hospitals.

As part of our annual audit plan, the OIG audited costs billed to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) by CSX Transportation, Inc. (CSXT) for the transportation of coal from various coal mines and blending facilities to the Bull Run Fossil Plant (BRF) under contract numbers 65133, 14474, 86072, 85702, and 85770. Our audit included approximately $41.5 million in costs CSXT billed to TVA from October 1, 2014, to March 31, 2016, under these five contracts. Our objective was to determine if the costs billed to TVA by CSXT were in compliance with the contracts' terms and conditions. In summary, we determined CSXT overbilled TVA $8,045,846 for costs billed under contract numbers 65133 and 85702. The overbilling included (1) $8,040,045 for overstated adjustments of per-ton rates under contract number 65133 dating back to January1, 2007, and (2) $5,801 for overstated fuel price adjustments under contract number 85702.(Summary Only)

The OIG audited TVA's compliance with the North American Electric Reliability Corporation's (NERC) Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) standards for logical and physical access for systems and locations that are considered high risk assets under NERC CIP standards. We found TVA was within the NERC CIP compliance standards for logical and physical access to high risk systems and locations with minor exceptions that were addressed during the audit. In addition, during our testing, we noted discrepancies between initial clearance dates in the hard copy and electronic records that were addressed during the audit.(Summary Only)