Federal Reports

This Semiannual Report to Congress reflects how the EPA OIG is achieving its mission of preventing and detecting fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement, and misconduct related to the programs and operations of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board. During the reporting period, October 1, 2020, through March 31, 2020, among other accomplishments, the OIG evaluated how the EPA and the CSB adapted during the coronavirus pandemic, introduced an Oversight Plan addressing EPA’s top challenges, and provided oversight of scientific integrity at the EPA.

To summarize prior work on the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) administrative finality policy and evaluate the Agency’s actions to update it.

Under the home health prospective payment system (PPS), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services pays home health agencies (HHAs) a standardized payment for each 60-day episode of care that a beneficiary receives. The PPS payment covers intermittent skilled nursing and home health aide visits, therapy (physical, occupational, and speech-language pathology), medical social services, and medical supplies.Our prior audits of home health services identified significant overpayments to HHAs. These overpayments were largely the result of HHAs improperly billing for services to beneficiaries who either were not confined to home (homebound) or were not in need of skilled services.Our objective was to determine whether Caretenders of Jacksonville, LLC (Caretenders), complied with Medicare requirements for billing home health services on selected types of claims.