Federal Reports

Overall, the Department has made improvements and continues to implement changes to strengthen its enterprise-wide information security program including adhering to security training procedures and updating policies and procedures. Further, the Department continues to work towards implementing a Department-wide Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation program, coordinating with the Department of Homeland Security.

Home health is a program area susceptible to fraud, waste, and abuse. To ensure that home health agencies (HHAs) comply with Medicare standards, Medicare requires them to undergo onsite surveys conducted by State survey agencies or accrediting organizations prior to initial enrollment and at least once every 36 months thereafter. As part of this process, however, surveyors use HHA supplied lists to select patients for review, prompting concern that HHAs could manipulate these lists to avoid scrutiny of certain patients.

We completed a review of the Morris K. Udall and Stewart L. Udall Foundation’s (Foundation’s) implementation of the eight recommendations presented in our 2017 audit report titled “Compliance, Allocated Costs, and Scholarship Awards at the Morris K. Udall and Steward L. Udall Foundation.” Our objective was to review the actions that the Foundation has taken and determine whether the Foundation implemented the recommendations. Based on our review, we concur that all eight recommendations have been resolved.

Although the decline of First-Class Mail volume rightfully gets a lot of attention, it is important to understand the underlying trends affecting its key segments, including correspondence mail. This paper examines how key and interrelated factors like electronic diversion, demographic changes, the economy, pricing, and evolving security and privacy concerns have affected the growth and decline of correspondence mail during the past 15 years, as well as how these factors could affect correspondence mail in the future.