Federal Reports

OIG received a complaint from a veteran alleging that Peterson Regional Medical Center (PRMC) in Kerrville, TX, canceled his sleep study appointment because VA owed PRMC more than $2 million, and PRMC was no longer accepting VA referrals for non-VA Care (NVC) as a result. There was insufficient evidence to substantiate the allegation that PRMC canceled the veteran’s scheduled sleep study because of non-payment by VA or that PRMC limited other veterans’ access to care. While PRMC continued to accept patients through the NVC program, OIG discovered that PRMC improperly informed the veteran that he might be responsible for payment if VA did not pay. OIG recommended the Director of the South Texas Veterans Health Care System (STVHCS) should instruct PRMC to stop advising veterans that they could be liable for pre-authorized NVC. The Director of the STVHCS concurred with our findings and recommendation and stated that STVHCS would implement the recommendation. We will monitor STVHCS’ progress and follow up on the implementation of our recommendation until the proposed action is completed.

We determined that FEMA’s policies are not sufficient enough to prohibit unaccredited, unlicensed, unregistered, and non-state approved non-profit schools from receiving Public Assistance funds. We made one recommendation for the FEMA Assistant Administrator for the Recovery Directorate to strengthen its policies and guidelines pertaining to non-profit schools eligibility for Public Assistance. FEMA agreed with our finding and recommendation, and will take corrective action to resolve the recommendation by February 28, 2018; therefore, we consider the recommendation resolved and open.

We found that the post’s financial and administrative operations required improvement to comply with agency policies and applicable federal laws and regulations. Our report contains 19 recommendations directed to the post and headquarters, including that the post strengthen controls over the processes for managing imprest funds, modifying contracts, creating bills of collection, collecting Volunteer overpayments, and closing grant projects. In addition, we recommend that the post work with Global Accounts Payable to obtain a waiver for the sub-cashiers when exceeding the maximum amount for a cashier advance, and that Global Accounts Payable publish guidance for mobile banking.

We found that Idaho’s oversight of the Title I and IDEA, Part B programs was adequate to determine whether services were being provided to students and that teachers were highly qualified, or that deficiencies were identified and corrective actions were required. Specifically, we found that it had sufficient policies and procedures for overseeing schools’ compliance with Federal program requirements. Idaho also conducted monitoring activities that supported implementation of these policies and procedures. However, we also found that Idaho needs to ensure full and prompt implementation of corrective actions and improve its Federal program oversight, as the issues we identified at one of the virtual charter schools, Inspire, were nearly identical to issues Idaho had identified several years earlier.