Federal Reports

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The Semiannual Report to Congress summarizes the results of VA OIG oversight, provides statistical information, and lists all reports issued from October 1, 2021, to March 31, 2022. During this reporting period, VA OIG audits, evaluations, investigations, inspections, and other reviews identified nearly $4.1 billion in monetary impact for a return on investment of $41 for every dollar spent on oversight. During this reporting period, the VA OIG issued 143 reports and publications on VA programs and operations, made 397 recommendations, and conducted investigations that led to 104 arrests.

The Office of the Inspector General conducted a review of the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant Radiation Protection (BFN RP) organization to identify factors that could impact BFN RP’s organizational effectiveness. During the course of our evaluation, we identified behavioral and operational factors that are negatively impacting BFN RP’s effectiveness and its ability to meet its responsibilities and support Nuclear’s vision and core principles. Most employees expressed having positive relationships with individuals in their own groups, and many indicated they trusted their coworkers to perform their jobs well. However, multiple negative behavioral factors were also expressed, including:• Concerns regarding interactions between BFN RP groups.• Concerns regarding management interactions.• Perceptions of (1) unethical and (2) noninclusive behaviors by certain managers.• Perceptions that BFN RP personnel cannot stop work and plant operations are placed before radiation safety.In addition, we were informed about concerns related to outdated instrumentation and equipment, inadequate supplies, the briefing room environment, and budget and staffing constraints. We also identified a risk related to the oversight and monitoring of the nuclear safety culture within BFN RP that could impact BFN as a whole.

VA has a right to recover community care treatment costs for conditions unrelated to military service from veterans’ private health insurers. The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) audit was conducted to determine how effectively the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) billed private insurers. Prior OIG work has shown that VHA has missed opportunities to recover funds that could be used to help finance care for other veterans.VHA’s Office of Community Care (OCC) manages community care programs and bills private insurers when needed. OCC must submit reimbursement claims before insurers’ deadlines are reached, or they may be denied.The OIG found OCC did not establish an effective process to ensure staff billed veterans’ private health insurers as required. An estimated 54 percent of billable community care claims paid between April 20, 2017, and October 31, 2020, were not submitted before filing deadlines expired. As a result, OCC did not collect an estimated $217.5 million that should have been recovered, a figure that could grow to $805.2 million by September 30, 2022, if problems are not corrected.OCC’s billing and revenue collection process also was not synchronized with insurers’ filing deadlines, and claims information was not always available for billing. Also, pending workload volume and staff shortages hindered effective billing. Although OCC was broadly aware of challenges to its process to bill and collect revenue from private insurers, its responses were not sufficient to correct these issues.VHA concurred with the OIG’s recommendations to develop procedures that prioritize processing to meet insurers’ filing deadlines and strengthen its information system controls to ensure information needed to process bills for reimbursement is complete and accurate. VHA should also assess staff resources and workload to make certain they are sufficiently aligned to process the anticipated volume of claims to be billed.

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