Open Recommendations

Instruct AmeriCorps portfolio managers to provide grantees with sufficient guidance and training on how to:a. Ensure that all costs reported on Federal Financial Reports submitted to AmeriCorps are sufficiently supported and reconcile to the grantees’ financial management systems.b. Appropriately track and report Federal and match costs to support that the grantees used the funds for authorized purposes.

Develop training and guidance for AmeriCorps Seniors grantees related to:a. Documentation required to support costs reported on Federal Financial Reports, including how to ensure amounts reported are accurate and reconcile to the grantees’ financial management systems.b. AmeriCorps Seniors grantees’ responsibilities with regard to retaining records and providing required documentation, responses, or information necessary to demonstrate that the documentation complies with Federal or AmeriCorps requirements.c. Requirements for financial management systems to separately identify expenses that the grantees paid using Federal funds or matching funding sources.

Issue clear instructions regarding match cost reporting and documentation requirements, including how these requirements may differ in extenuating circumstances or when grantees are eligible for a waiver.

Recover the $42,945 in questioned Federal expenses that were not allowable, appropriately allocated, or adequately supported.

Recover the $8,821 in questioned Federal expenses associated with employees and volunteers for whom the grantees did not appropriately perform National Service Criminal History Checks.

Require AmeriCorps Seniors grantees to develop and implement additional procedures and internal controls to ensure that costs are allowable, allocable, and adequately supported.

Require AmeriCorps Seniors grantees to develop and implement additional procedures and internal controls to ensure they appropriately and timely perform National Service Criminal History Checks

Develop and provide guidance to AmeriCorps Seniors grantees regarding the requirements for indirect costs to ensure the grantees appropriately apply their Federally negotiated indirect cost rates and claim indirect costs.

Coordinate with the Office of Regional Operations to work with its AmeriCorps Seniors grantees to strengthen their administrative and management controls and processes over the timeliness of financial reporting

Verify that AmeriCorps Seniors grantees revise their financial management systems to ensure that the financial management systems can support comparisons of actual expenditures to amounts budgeted for each AmeriCorps Seniors grant.

Develop and implement guidance and training for AmeriCorps Seniors grantees that addresses the use of financial management systems to create and maintain documentation to support that the grantees have compared actual expenditures to amounts budgeted for each AmeriCorps Seniors grant.

Work with its grantees to revise their written policies and procedures to address Federal payment requirements and 2 C.F.R. § 200, Subpart E – Cost Principles.

That the agency update and finalize the travel policy, travel manual, and procurement office policies and procedures.

The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should assess and implement, if possible, the capability to provide taxpayers with the option to transfer to the appointment line versus having to hang up and call a different number.

The Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division, should provide the option to hear local TAC recorded messages in Spanish at all TACs.

We recommend that the New York State Department of Health work with the New York State Office of Mental Health to improve monitoring activities by increasing the number of case files reviewed when conducting provider site visits to ensure that service plans and subsequent service plan reviews are timely signed and maintained, community rehabilitation claims meet Medicaid reimbursement standards, and services are appropriately authorized. We recommend that the New York State Department of Health work with the New York State Office of Mental Health to improve monitoring activities by providing formal guidance or training to providers to clarify requirements related…

We recommend that New York State Department of Health refund $19,888,031 to the Federal Government.

Use the death information already in its records to input death information on 2.5 million numberholders’ Numident records.

Use death information in Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and various state death data files to input death information on approximately 498,000 Numident records.

Develop a methodology to annotate death information onto the Numident records of the approximately 15.8 million remaining non-current payment status beneficiary numberholders identified by our audit.

We recommend that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services work with the DME MACs to do the following, which if in effect during our audit period could have saved Medicare as much as $30,051,107 for wheelchair repairs: review accumulated costs for wheelchair repairs that exceed the federally recommended cost limit, and for those wheelchairs that the DME MACs determine will not remain serviceable for their entire 5-year RUL, enforce Federal requirements by requiring the suppliers that transferred ownership of the wheelchairs purchased on a rental basis to enrollees to furnish replacement wheelchairs to those enrollees at no cost to…

We recommend that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services work with the DME MACs to do the following, which if in effect during our audit period could have saved Medicare as much as $30,051,107 for wheelchair repairs: implement system edits to identify for review claims for repairs made to wheelchairs during their 5-year RUL when the accumulated costs of repairs have exceeded a certain cost limit.

We recommend that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services work with the DME MACs to do the following, which if in effect during our audit period could have saved Medicare as much as $30,051,107 for wheelchair repairs: strengthen Medicare requirements to ensure that DME MACs review accumulated costs of repairs made to wheelchairs (including wheelchairs purchased on a lump-sum basis) during their 5-year RUL that exceed a certain cost limit and use this cost limit as a basis for determining when wheelchairs furnished by suppliers will not remain serviceable for their entire 5-year RUL.

We recommend that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services work with the DME MACs to do the following, which if in effect during our audit period could have saved Medicare as much as $30,051,107 for wheelchair repairs: take appropriate action for suppliers that consistently bill for repairs made to wheelchairs during their 5-year RUL that exceed the federally recommended cost limit or the cost limit used as the basis for determining when wheelchairs furnished by suppliers will not remain serviceable for their entire 5-year RUL (e.g., by educating suppliers on proper billing and recovering improper payments).

FMC should develop, document, and approve a Log Retention Policy.