Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

Providers that mismanage funding could lose deserved money.

Relaxed regulations in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath may make Medicare and Medicaid vulnerable to fraud and abusebut the HHS Office of Inspector General is already on guard to protect the programs from overspending and depleting rightful payments.

OIG officials have been working hard--even before Hurricane Katrina made landfall--to prevent post-disaster fraud, abuse and funds misappropriations, HHS Deputy Inspector General for Audit Services Joseph E. Vengrin and Deputy Inspector General for Investigations Michael E. Little testified Sept. 28 before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

The OIG established the Hurricane Relief Working Group, which reviews "proposed program changes to identify potential vulnerabilities for fraud, waste and abuse that require increased scrutiny," according to the testimony. In addition to creating this group, the OIG is:

• Assessing the initial risks associated with relaxing internal controls over expedited payments for each major HHS program and activity;

• Developing special work plans and focusing audit and inspection efforts on very vulnerable programs; and

• Coordinating with other agencies, such as the Government Accountability Office, President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency, state auditors, public accounting firms and the Department of Justice.


Find it online: To read the testimony, go to http://www.oig.hhs.gov/testimony/docs/2005/KatrinaEnergy&Commerce.pdf.