Reports

Telehealth was critical for providing services to Medicare beneficiaries during the first year of the pandemic. Beneficiaries' use of telehealth during the pandemic also demonstrates the long-term potential of telehealth to increase access to health care for beneficiaries. Further, it shows that beneficiaries particularly benefited from the ability to use telehealth for certain services, such as behavioral health services. These findings are important for CMS, Congress, and other stakeholders to take into account as they consider making changes to telehealth in Medicare. For example, CMS could...

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...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Funding Dashboard allows stakeholders to explore an overview of the sources and uses of USDA’s COVID-19 funding. This interactive dashboard displays the amounts of USDA COVID-19 funding enacted, budgeted, obligated, and spent, by appropriations act, agency, program area, and use of funds, as identified by USDA’s Office of Budget and Program Analysis and by the Forest Service.

The objective of our ongoing inspection is to evaluate FNS’ oversight of TEFAP—this report provides the interim results on what criteria FNS used to approve States for food and administrative funds provided under the FFCR and CARES Acts.

On March 13, 2020, the President of the United States declared that the COVID-19 pandemic was a national emergency. That same day, in accordance with section 1135(b) of the Social Security Act (the Act), the Secretary of HHS invoked his authority to waive or modify certain requirements of Titles XVIII, XIX, and XXI of the Act. To limit the spread of the virus, Federal, State and local governments urged individuals to stay at home and for individuals who test positive to quarantine, among other preventive measures. As a result, the usual and customary ways that many individuals obtained...

We determined how RBCS implemented the B&I CARES Act Guaranteed Loan Program and made modifications to help guaranteed lenders with existing borrowers experiencing cash flow issues.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has affected millions of Americans, resulting in more than 600,000 deaths. Medicare beneficiaries have been particularly affected and remain vulnerable to new variants and additional surges of the virus. Clinicians and researchers are still working to fully understand the damage to the body from the disease and what underlying chronic conditions potentially lead to more severe complications or hospitalization. Understanding the types of conditions for which Medicare beneficiaries with COVID-19 are being treated and who was more likely to be hospitalized with...