Open Recommendations

Implement a postpayment edit process to detect claims submitted by suppliers processed before a beneficiary's notice of election of hospice care is processed in the CWF, and instruct the DME Medicare contractors to deny DMEPOS claims identified by the edit process if they do no have the GW modifier.

Study the feasibility of including palliative items and services not related to a beneficiary's terminal illness and related conditions within the hospice per diem. Such a requirement would eliminate the need for Medicare to make additional payments for these services consistent with CMS's longstanding position that payments for services unrelated to a beneficiary's terminal illness and related conditions should be exceptional, unusual, and rare given the comprehensive nature of the services covered under the Medicare hospice benefit. In analyzing the feasibility of such a change, CMS could consider: (1) beneficiary access to care, (2) administrative costs, (3) appropriate adjustments to…

Rec. 1.a: The DoD OIG recommended that the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness ensure the Defense Civilian Human Resources Management System, when fully implemented, provides human resources officials within the Department the capability to match individual civilian personnel to specific authorized and budgeted positions across all DoD Components in order to assist in identification and closing of skill gaps.

Rec. 1.b.1: The DoD OIG recommended that the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, in coordination with the Military Departments and DoD Components, identify relevant performance metrics related to hiring a sufficient and well-qualified DoD overseas civilian workforce (such as vacancy/hire/fill rates) that account for unique overseas conditions.

Rec. 1.b.2: The DoD OIG recommended that the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, in coordination with the Military Departments and DoD Components, incorporate the metrics in relevant human capital planning documents or systems.

Rec. 1.b.3: The DoD OIG recommended that the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, in coordination with the Military Departments and DoD Components, use the metrics to monitor improvement in the hiring of the overseas civilian workforce.

Rec. 1.c.1: The DoD OIG recommended that the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, in coordination with the civilian human resources agencies of the Military Departments and DoD Components, capture and disseminate overseas civilian hiring guidance that identifies best practices to allow workforce owners to collect and report data on vacant positions, also known as skills gaps, in a standardized format to support DoD-wide analysis.

Rec. 1.c.2: The DoD OIG recommended that the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, in coordination with the civilian human resources agencies of the Military Departments and DoD Components, capture and disseminate overseas civilian hiring guidance that identifies best practices to allow workforce owners to supplement the Office of Personnel Management 80-day, end-to-end hiring initiative to account for the additional hiring actions, including the permanent change of station process, needed to onboard employees at overseas locations.

Rec. 1.c.3: The DoD OIG recommended that the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, in coordination with the civilian human resources agencies of the Military Departments and DoD Components, capture and disseminate overseas civilian hiring guidance that identifies best practices to allow workforce owners to assist human resources officials at overseas locations in developing practical local hiring timelines to minimize the quantity and duration of vacancies among overseas positions and to aid in the transition of duties.

Develop and implement a quality review process at the local Regional Office level that includes review of the data at key points during the case life cycle

Develop and implement a standard methodology for documenting data in the NxGen case file

Develop an Artemis-wide cost estimate, in accordance with best practices, that is updated on an annual basis.

Maintain an accounting of per-mission costs to increase transparency and establish a benchmark against which NASA can assess the outcome of initiatives to increase the affordability of ESD systems.

Continue working with Administrative Resource Center to review and correct AmeriCorps’ balances in detail to ensure they are properly supported and that balances migrated to the ARC platform are complete, accurate, and reliable. (Modified Repeat)

Strengthen its policies and procedures over the processing of JEs going forward now that AmeriCorps has transitioned to the shared service environment. The policies and procedures should cover the following: (a) A process to track the sequence of JE transactions for completeness. (b) A policy as to when it is appropriate to use a JE and approval procedures for JEs recorded to ensure segregation of duties. (c) A requirement to provide a fact-specific description of the purpose of the JE, along with adequate supporting documentation. (d) Documentation needed to support JEs and how it will be maintained.

Validate and ensure JEs are properly supported, documented, and are readily available for examination. (Modified Repeat)

Validate that the underlying data used in the accrual methodology, such as the use of grantee Undelivered Order balances to allocate accrual amounts, is reliable by ensuring previously reported conditions are remediated and recommendations are implemented. (New)

Develop a process to validate grant advances, IBNR and payable estimates. Such validation should be performed over a few years to show a trend of the estimates. Any benchmarks to assess reasonableness should be vetted for completeness and reliability. For example, the use of eGrants FFRS should be vetted to ensure inclusion of IBNR. Large (exceeding AmeriCorps acceptable range) and unusual fluctuations, if any, should be investigated and the research conclusions documented by management. Fluctuations should be reviewed at the absolute variances level and not using net differences.
Modified repeat recommendation for FY 2021

Strengthen its policies and procedures over the processing of JEs going forward now that AmeriCorps has transitioned to the shared service environment. The policies and procedures should cover the following: (a) A policy as to when it is appropriate to use a JE and approval procedures for JEs recorded to ensure segregation of duties. (b) A requirement to provide a fact-specific description of the purpose of the JE, along with adequate supporting documentation.

Validate and ensure JEs are properly supported, documented, and are readily available for examination. (Modified Repeat)

Continue working with Administrative Resource Center to review and correct AmeriCorps’ balances in detail to ensure they are properly supported and that balances migrated to the ARC platform are complete, accurate, and reliable.
Modified repeat recommendation since FY 2019.

KPMG recommends that DOT management design and implement procedures to consistently and timely perform and document user account access reviews as required by standards for effective internal control systems and/or internal policy.

KPMG recommends that DOT management design and implement procedures related to the retention of appropriate supporting evidence of internal controls, including but not limited to, access administration, access recertification, audit log review, and patch management.

Ensure policies and procedures governing the provisioning and de-provisioning of access to information systems are followed in a timely manner and documentation of completion of these processes is maintained.

Establish a means of documenting all users who have access to systems, and all users who had their systems access revoked.