Federal Reports

A prior OIG review found that Medicare made improper and potentially improper payments of $1.9 million to providers for emergency ambulance transports to destinations other than hospitals or skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) with dates of service from calendar years (CYs) 2014 through 2016. As part of that review, we identified $3.2 million in payments for emergency ambulance transports from hospitals to SNFs. Because hospitals are capable of providing emergency services, we conducted this separate review of emergency ambulance transports from hospitals to SNFs to determine the appropriateness of billing for them as emergency ambulance transports.

We audited the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) executive travel expenses to determine if they complied with Federal Travel Regulation (FTR) and TVA’s policies and procedures. Our audit scope included approximately $1.8 million in TVA executive travel expenses occurring from October 1, 2016, through July 31, 2018. Our audit found several instances where TVA executives did not comply with the FTR and/or TVA policies for travel, business meetings, and hospitality including (1) overpaid meal and incidental expenses per diem, (2) excessive meal costs incurred while in travel status, (3) the use of “car services” instead of less expensive modes of transportation in certain locations, (4) foreign travel expenses that did not comply with the FTR and TVA policies, (5) lodging that was not always in compliance with the FTR and TVA policies, and (6) some travel costs that were not reported to the TVA Board of Directors. Additionally, we found domestic airfare was generally in compliance with the FTR, but an area for improvement was identified.In summary, the actions by some TVA executives indicate a “Tone at the Top” that could send a message to TVA employees that management is not committed to the TVA Code of Conduct and compliance with the FTR and TVA policies and procedures. We made 14 recommendations to TVA management to strengthen controls around executive travel by reinforcing the existing TVA travel policy and developing additional guidance to ensure compliance with the FTR. TVA management provided actions they plan to take to address each of our recommendations.

OIG data analytics identified that the West Sacramento P&DC had $18,827 recorded to account identification code (AIC) 624, Refund of Miscellaneous Non-Postal Revenue, from January 1 to March 31, 2019. AIC 624 refunds for the West Sacramento P&DC accounted for 67.5 percent of all refunds processed in the Sacramento District for the same timeframe. This percentage ranked the West Sacramento P&DC as the highest in the Sacramento District and the third highest in the nation for AIC 624. The objective is to determine whether miscellaneous non-postal revenue refunds were properly issued, supported, and processed at the West Sacramento P&DC.

The DOL-OIG Investigations Newsletter contains a bimonthly summary of selected investigative accomplishments.

Due to potential risks associated with employee separations where some Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) employees ceased active work prior to their last official day of employment, we included an audit of timely access removal as part of our annual audit plan. Our audit objective was to determine if physical and logical access is removed when employees cease active work prior to retirement or other termination. Our scope included TVA employees whose employment ended during calendar year 2018 who ceased active work prior to retirement or other termination. In summary, we found (1) TVA’s policies and procedures do not provide guidance for supervisors/managers regarding removal of an employee’s logical or physical access if they stop active work prior to separation, and (2) employee’s physical and logical access is not consistently removed on a timely basis when employees cease active work prior to retirement or other separation.