Federal Reports

U.S. Postal Service employees who sustain a workrelated injury or occupational disease are covered by the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act (FECA), which provides monetary and medical benefits and assistance in returning employees to work. These benefits include wage-loss compensation, medical and rehabilitation services, and death benefit payments to surviving dependents.

The Postal Service encourages employees to report any work-related injuries or illness to their supervisors as soon as possible. Additionally, the Postal Service manages efforts to return injured employees to work through its Injury Compensation Program by monitoring their medical status and identifying suitable work. The Department of Labor (DOL) Office of Workers’ Compensation Program (OWCP) has the exclusive authority to administer, implement, and enforce FECA, including paying claims on behalf of injured employees.

The Postal Service’s workers' compensation costs per workhour have been consistently higher when compared to the private industry. This white paper is intended to provide an update on the Postal Service’s workers’ compensation activity since the last audit report, which included a summary of trends in costs from chargeback year (CBY) 2017 through CBY 2022, and employees on the periodic rolls from fiscal year (FY) 2017 through FY 2022. Specifically, the following sections show how workers’ compensation costs for the Postal Service continued to rise over the last two years.

TVA began hedging natural gas prices in April 2022 under the reinstated Financial Hedging Program (FHP). The program’s stated objectives are to reduce fuel rate volatility and balance operational and financial risks. From its reinstatement in April 2022 through February 2025, TVA’s FHP experienced losses of approximately $645 million.  We performed an audit of the FHP due to the financial risks associated with hedging. Our audit objective was to determine if TVA’s FHP is achieving its objectives of reducing fuel rate volatility and balancing operational and financial risks.

We determined the FHP achieved its objective of reducing fuel rate volatility between April 2022 and February 2025.  Over the 35-month period, fuel rate volatility was reduced by an average of about 3.5 percent.  However, we were unable to determine if TVA met its objective of balancing financial and operational risks because the objective is unclear and TVA has not defined parameters to define successful achievement of the objective. 

Although the fuel rate volatility was reduced over the entire time frame, the FHP resulted in (1) approximately $645 million in losses that were passed on to TVA’s customers and (2) a 2 percent increase in fuel rate volatility in fiscal year 2024.  We also found TVA had not performed the required back testing to measure volatility reduction and the effectiveness of the FHP.  At our request, TVA performed the back testing that showed the program had reduced fuel rate volatility. 

Additionally, we identified an opportunity for TVA to improve the information provided to the TVA Board, Tennessee Valley Public Power Association, and Tennessee Valley Industrial Committee related to FHP fuel rate volatility and FHP gains/losses.

This report presents the results of our audit of Network Changes: Regional Transfer Hubs.

The U.S. Postal Service implemented the Regional Transfer Hubs (RTH) initiative nationwide as part of its efforts to streamline and modernize its network. The initiative reduces origin separations and moves mail across the country to RTH operations where it is then sorted for destinating facilities. The Postal Service expects this initiative to reduce the overall number of trips needed and transportation costs. As of March 2025, the Postal Service had 18 active RTHs located throughout the country with plans to activate more.

Our objective was to evaluate the implementation and effectiveness of the Postal Service's RTH initiative. We reviewed and analyzed transportation and service performance data from October 2023 through March 2025. Additionally, we conducted site observations and interviewed Postal Service personnel at five RTH facilities during April and May 2025.

As directed under the MISSION Act, VA created clinical resource hubs to improve healthcare access for veterans in underserved areas. The hubs backstop medical facilities in each regional Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) that do not have enough clinical staff due to attrition, recruiting difficulties, or growth in the veteran population. Hub physicians see most patients virtually. Encounters increased from almost 482,000 in fiscal year (FY) 2021 to about 1.2 million in FY 2024.

The OIG team found that despite the increase in patient encounters, physicians in some hub primary care and specialty group practices—such as cardiologists, dermatologists, and psychiatrists and psychologists—generally did not appear to meet established minimum productivity thresholds. The apparent failure to meet these thresholds may have been caused by gaps and inaccuracies in the data used to measure productivity. The available data did not consistently give physicians credit for work documented at a spoke site (where a veteran presents for care), recognizing only work documented at the facility to which the hub physician’s labor is mapped. Moreover, VHA lacked formal guidance on how hubs should measure and monitor specialty physician productivity. Hub officials simply relied on indicators like the number of patient encounters and veterans served, instead of using standardized productivity metrics that factor in the complexity of each visit. The lack of guidance also prevented VHA from identifying and remediating underperforming hub services.

The OIG recommended VHA improve data, issue guidance on which productivity measures apply to hub physicians, and clarify who should monitor productivity and take corrective action when targets are not met. These steps will help VHA evaluate whether the ever-increasing investment in hubs is justified and the number of veterans served is optimized. VHA agreed with the recommendations.