Federal Reports

IHS provides comprehensive Federal health services to approximately 2.6 million American Indians and Alaska Natives. OIG and others have found significant problems in the quality of care and oversight of IHS hospitals. This study identifies underlying organizational challenges that may hamper IHS's ability to address critical longstanding problems. At times these issues have had serious consequences, including difficulty maintaining compliance with Federal quality-of-care requirements. IHS has made important new plans for improving the quality of care that it provides in its hospitals. However, if underlying organizational challenges are not addressed, they may prevent IHS from bringing its full organizational strength to these efforts.

This report is not publicly available due to concerns with information protected under the Freedom of Information Act.

As this brief history shows, the postal establishment struggled to adapt to the many ways the dispersed rural population differed from the concentrated urban population. Even though America has become an increasingly urban society, rural areas retain a distinct culture. The Postal Service is a part of that. This white paper brings an essential historical perspective and is the first in a larger body of OIG work to better understand the urban-rural divide and how it is exhibited through the Postal Service’s customers. Because the Postal Service has a binding effect on the community spirit and engagement with Americans, considerations of changes to the current service model require thoughtful evaluation of the impact on both urban and rural citizens.

We issued this to (1) determine whether the Social Security Administration (SSA) made payments to beneficiaries and representative payees who were deceased according to Puerto Rico Department of Health vital records and (2) identify non-beneficiaries who were deceased according to Puerto Rico vital records but whose death information did not appear in SSA records.