Federal Reports

Precision Health, Inc., (Precision), (located in Staten Island, New York) complied with certain Medicare Part B requirements for 88 of the 117 claims that we sampled. However, the remaining 29 claims did not comply with certain Medicare requirements. On the basis of our sample results, we estimated that Precision improperly claimed at least $332,000 in Medicare reimbursement for unallowable portable x-ray services

The payments that Medicare contractors made to providers in Jurisdiction E (American Samoa, California, Guam, Hawaii, Nevada, and Northern Mariana Islands) and Jurisdiction F (Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming) for hospital outpatient dental services generally did not comply with Medicare requirements. Of the 100 dental services in our stratified random sample, 79 did not comply with Medicare requirements. Using our sample results, we estimated that Medicare contractors improperly paid providers in Jurisdictions E and F at least $818,000 from January 1, 2013, through December 31, 2014.

From October 1, 2009, through September 30, 2012, the Washington State Health Care Authority (State agency) claimed $117,000 in unallowable Federal Medicaid reimbursement for dental services. The unallowable payments consisted of (1) duplicate payments, (2) payments for services that were provided more frequently than State regulations allowed, and (3) payments for certain services that required prior authorization but for which the State agency did not have a record of providing authorization.

Blockchain technology is a new way to transfer any kind of data or information in a fast, tracked, and secure manner without need for an intermediary. Major companies, such as Citibank and Australia Post, are beginning to research and experiment with this technology in order to provide new and more efficient services. The Postal Service could benefit from use of this technology – particularly regarding financial services, identity services, supply chain management, and device management – and should consider exploring and experimenting with it.

This report addresses the status of the Census Bureau’s (the Bureau’s) 2020 decennial program preparation and planning efforts. The Bureau maintains all known living quarters in the Master Address File (MAF). Each address in the MAF is linked to a geographic location in the Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing database (TIGER), to create the MAF/TIGER database (MTdb). Our audit objectives were to (1) assess the methods and costs of continuously updating the MTdb; (2) determine how efforts, such as the 2015 Address Validation Test, support the accuracy of the MAF; and (3) evaluate the preparation of the Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA) program for the 2020 decennial census. This report focuses on risks identified for objective 1. A report on objectives 2 and 3 was released on February 23, 2016.