Federal Reports

The objective of this Congressionally mandated report was to identify potential cost savings or revenue improvements associated with improved on-time performance (OTP).We found a relationship between improved OTP, increased revenue, and decreased costs. In the short term, we estimated that improving OTP by five percentage points on all routes would result in $12.1 million in financial benefits in the first year. These benefits would include $8.2 million in reduced costs and $3.9 million in increased revenue. In the longer term, if OTP on long-distance routes could improve to 75 percent and be sustained at that level for at least a year, the company could realize an estimated $41.9 million per year in cost savings, and a one-time savings of $336 million by reducing equipment replacement needs. We also found that the company does not fully and systemically measure the impacts of poor OTP and therefore has limited data to discuss OTP’s financial consequences with stakeholders such as Congress and affected parties.We recommended that the company update its models to improve the reliability of its forecasts of the short-term financial impacts of various rates of OTP and to use its models to develop more reliable estimates of the financial impacts of delays associated with various business activities.

The Fiscal Years 2020 to 2022 OIG Strategic Plan includes the long-range goals and objectives designed to enhance OIG oversight in support of the Peace Corps and its three goals.

This Comprehensive Healthcare Inspection Program (CHIP) provides a focused evaluation of the quality of care delivered by randomly selected Veterans Health Administration (VHA) facilities. The inspection covers key processes associated with promoting quality care, including Quality, Safety, and Value; Credentialing and Privileging; Environment of Care; Medication Management: Controlled Substances Inspections; Mental Health: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder; Long-Term Care: Geriatric Evaluations; Women’s Health: Mammography Results and Follow-Up; and High-Risk Processes: Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections. The Office of Inspector General (OIG) noted that 85 percent of leaders were assigned permanently at the 51 VA facilities visited from October 2017 through September 2018. These facility leaders generally appeared engaged in supporting quality, felt supported by VISN leaders, were aware of improvement efforts for employee and patient satisfaction, and actively addressed Joint Commission and OIG recommendations for improvement. Sixteen of the surveyed facilities with a “1-” or “2-star” Strategic Analytics for Improvement and Learning (SAIL) star rating had significant opportunities for improvement, and facilities with higher SAIL star ratings had fewer OIG recommendations for improvement. The OIG issued 16 recommendations for improvement: (1) Quality, Safety, and Value • Implementation of peer review improvement actions • Physician utilization management advisors’ inpatient stay reviews • Interdisciplinary utilization management data reviews • Feedback for root cause analysis actions (2) Credentialing and Privileging • Reporting of focused professional practice evaluations (FPPEs) to an appropriate committee of the medical staff • Clearly delineated timeframes in FPPEs • Service-specific data in ongoing professional practice evaluations (OPPEs) • Specialty-specific elements in selected specialty providers’ OPPEs (3) Environment of Care • Environmental cleanliness • Panic alarms testing • Floor cushioning in mental health unit seclusion rooms • Emergency operations plan/processes (4) Controlled Substances Inspections • Correction of deficiencies from annual physical security surveys • One-day reconciliation of stock between pharmacy and dispensing areas • Monthly controlled substances inspections (5) Geriatric evaluation program oversight/evaluation

Lamont Brown, a resident of Brooklyn, NY, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, on October 10, 2019, to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, for his involvement in an Amtrak eVoucher scheme. Brown and his co-conspirators used stolen credit card information to make unauthorized purchases of Amtrak tickets and then cancelled or exchanged those tickets for eVouchers. Subsequently, they sold the fraudulently obtained eVouchers on the internet. Brown’s sentencing is pending.