Federal Reports

We found that the Department’s audit followup process was not always effective and noted that the Department’s accountable office did not fulfill its responsibilities to (1) ensure that action officials had systems in place to follow up on corrective actions, (2) monitor compliance with OMB Circular A-50, and (3) ensure the overall effectiveness of the audit resolution and followup system. We also found that the Department did not ensure timely audit closure and principal offices did not always adequately maintain documentation of audit followup activities. As a result, the Department did not have assurance that requested corrective actions were taken and that the issues noted in the OIG audits were corrected.

The University of Tennessee Medical Center (the Hospital) complied with Medicare billing requirements for 219 of the 236 inpatient and outpatient claims that we reviewed. However, the Hospital did not fully comply with Medicare billing requirements for the remaining 17 claims, resulting in overpayments of $42,000. These overpayments occurred primarily because the Hospital did not have adequate controls to prevent incorrect billing of Medicare claims within the selected risk areas that contained errors.