Reports
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Department of Veterans Affairs OIG
Care in the Community Consult Management During the COVID-19 Pandemic at the Martinsburg VA Medical Center in West Virginia
The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted a healthcare inspection at the Martinsburg VA Medical Center (facility) in West Virginia to assess allegations of failure to schedule a Care in the Community (CITC) COVID Priority 1 cardiology consult within Veterans Health Administration requirements, and delays in CITC consult scheduling caused by inadequate CITC staffing. The OIG substantiated that a COVID Priority 1 CITC cardiology consult was not scheduled within 30 days of the clinically indicated date. The OIG determined that the consult was amongst a backlog of approximately 5,000...
Department of Health & Human Services OIG
The Assistant Secretary for Administration Awarded and Managed Five Sole Source Contracts for COVID-19 Testing in Accordance With Federal and Contract Requirements
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is one of the largest contracting agencies in the Federal Government. In fiscal year 2020, HHS awarded over $14 billion in contracts in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Of these contracts, HHS's Assistant Secretary for Administration (ASA) awarded five sole source COVID-19 testing contracts to national pharmacy and grocery retail chains to provide Americans convenient access to COVID-19 testing at testing site locations throughout the United States. The contracts provided a flat-fee payment to participating retailers for each test...
Pandemic Response Accountability Committee
Small Business Administration Paycheck Protection Program Phase III Fraud Controls
The PRAC examined whether the Small Business Administration (SBA) Phase III fraud controls, which were applied to process Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans in 2021, would have likely detected the earlier fraud found in PPP criminal cases. SBA designed the PPP Phase III controls to address significant fraud identified in the earlier phases of the program and some were later used by the SBA in its Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF) program.
Department of Veterans Affairs OIG
Audit of Community Care Consults during COVID-19
During COVID-19, VHA’s Office of Community Care (OCC) took steps to ensure veterans continued to have expanded access to health care in the community, as required by the VA MISSION Act of 2018. OCC issued policies to VA facilities to postpone nonurgent appointments and offer alternatives to in-person care, such as telehealth. The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted this audit to determine whether VHA effectively managed community care consults for routine appointments during the pandemic. The OIG found that routine community care consults were unscheduled for an average of 42 days...
Small Business Administration OIG
SBA’s Oversight of the Grant Recipient’s Implementation of the CARES Act Resource Partners Training Portal
We evaluated the SBA’s handling of the grant to train small businesses on federal resources available in the wake of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act authorized funds up to $25 million for SBA to administer a grant to an association or associations representing resource partner centers to establish a single centralized hub for COVID-19 information. We found SBA did not ensure the grant recipient developed and implemented an effective marketing and outreach strategy to ensure the hub successfully achieved the...
Department of Health & Human Services OIG
COVID-19 Tests Drove an Increase in Total Medicare Part B Spending on Lab Tests in 2020, While Use of Non-COVID-19 Tests Decreased Significantly
Department of Veterans Affairs OIG
Systems and Tools Implemented to Track COVID-19 Vaccine Data
The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) examined whether the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) implemented data collection and reporting systems to report on the supply of COVID-19 vaccines to VA medical facilities and doses administered to VA employees and veterans enrolled in VA’s healthcare system (approximately 9.5 million individuals). Although essential for national reporting, tracking VA vaccine data is difficult because VA does not have a centralized national pharmacy inventory management system to track vaccine supply at facilities. Although VHA staff swiftly developed data...
Small Business Administration OIG
COVID-19 EIDL Program Recipients on the Department of Treasury's Do Not Pay List
We produced this Management Advisory to notify Small Business Administration (SBA) officials of serious concerns about potential improper payments in SBA’s Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program. Our review of Treasury’s analysis of processed COVID-19 EIDL and emergency EIDL grants from March to November 2020 revealed that SBA’s lack of adequate pre-award controls during this period of review led to 75,180 COVID-19 EIDLs totaling over $3.1 billion and 117,135 emergency EIDL grants totaling over $550 million being disbursed to potentially ineligible...
Department of Veterans Affairs OIG
Comprehensive Healthcare Inspection of Facilities' COVID-19 Pandemic Readiness and Response in Veterans Integrated Service Networks 1 and 8
This Office of Inspector General (OIG) Comprehensive Healthcare Inspection Program (CHIP) report provides a focused evaluation of Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) 1 and 8 facilities’ COVID-19 pandemic readiness and response. This evaluation focused on emergency preparedness; supplies, equipment, and infrastructure; staffing; access to care; community living center patient care and operations; facility staff feedback; and VA and VISN 1 and 8 vaccination efforts. The OIG has aggregated findings on COVID-19 preparedness and responsiveness from routine inspections to ensure prompt...
Department of Veterans Affairs OIG
Deficiencies in Select Community Care Consult (Stat) Processes During the COVID-19 Pandemic
The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted a national review of stat community care consults generated during the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic to evaluate consult processes. Patient involvement in care urgency disagreements and reporting of adverse events in community care were also reviewed. When the OIG identified deficiencies in processes, electronic health records (EHRs) of the patients at issue were further examined for potential negative outcomes. The OIG did not identify any negative care outcomes. For the 2,236 stat community care consults generated from March 20, 2020...