Federal Reports

The California Department of Social Services (Social Services), Community Care Licensing Division (licensing division), did not (1) accurately record or investigate one complaint, (2) complete investigations in a timely manner, (3) refer priority I and II complaints (the most serious) to the Investigations Branch, (4) adequately cross-report complaints to the Children and Family Services Division and to law enforcement, (5) conduct onsite inspections within 10 days, (6) associate an employee of a community care facility with the facility, and (7) adequately clear plan-of-correction deficiencies.

Wisconsin Physicians Service Insurance Corporation (WPS) claimed $1.2 million in unallowable administrative costs on its Medicare Part A final administrative cost proposals (FACPs) for fiscal year 2012. We recommended that WPS reduce its FACPs by $1.2 million to eliminate the unallowable costs identified and improve procedures to identify allowable and unallowable costs in accordance with the applicable Medicare contract, Cost Accounting Standards (CAS), and FAR provisions. In written comments on our draft report, WPS did not concur with $1.2 million in recommended reductions related to unallowable residual home office expenses, employee incentive program bonuses and related taxes, and salary allocations. WPS provided limited comments on our recommendation for procedural improvements. We maintain that all of our findings and recommendations are valid.

Wisconsin Physicians Service Insurance Corporation (WPS) claimed $1.3 million in unallowable administrative costs on its Medicare Part B final administrative cost proposals (FACPs) for fiscal year 2012.

In March 2015, February and October 2016, the Postal Service administered Postal Pulse surveys to evaluate employee engagement. Results indicated postal employee engagement improved slightly over the course of the three surveys. However, the Postal Service ranked in the bottom one percent of scores for all organizations Gallup surveyed in each of the three survey administrations. In January 2016, management created an employee engagement team within the Human Resources function, which subsequently developed eight engagement activities. Our objective was to assess Postal Service Human Resources’ employee engagement activities to determine whether they are effective in enhancing employee engagement. We also reviewed employee comments on social media sites to gauge employee sentiments.

In 2016, the Postal Service managed 31,585 retail offices serving 877 million customers. To reduce wait-time-in-line and expedite customer transactions, the Postal Service developed the mobile Point-of-Sale (mPOS) system, which allows retail associates to accept credit card and non-PIN debit card payments for customers’ retail transactions. Our objective was to determine if the mPOS devices and application are managed in accordance with Postal Service policy and best practices.