Reports

Identifying patients who are at-risk of overdose or abuse is key to addressing this crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic has made this need even more pressing. The National Institutes of Health recently warned that individuals with opioiduse disorder could be particularly hard hit by COVID-19, which is a respiratory virus that attacks the lungs. Respiratory disease is known to increase mortality risks among people taking opioids. This data brief would provide information on opioid utilization among beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare Part D in 2020. 

Our objective was to evaluate the U.S. Postal Service’s service performance of Election and Political Mail during the November 2020 general election. We also evaluated the handling of mail for the Georgia Senate runoff election held on January 5, 2021. The Postal Service prioritized processing of Election Mail during the 2020 general election, significantly improving timeliness over the 2018 mid-term election even with significantly increased volumes of Election Mail in the mailstream. Although timeliness was slightly below goals, proper handling and timely delivery of all Election Mail...

On March 27, 2020, the President signed into law the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act). To date the CARES Act has provided the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) with $909.7 million, which includes direct apportionments of $756 million to support the needs of DOI programs, bureaus, Indian Country, and the Insular Areas, and a $153.7 million transfer from the U.S. Department of Education to the BIE. This report presents the DOI’s progress as of December 31, 2020, in spending CARES Act appropriations. Specifically, the DOI’s expenditures to date total $600,876,882...

CDC Immunization and Vaccines for Children Cooperative Agreement awardees, which are typically State and large metropolitan area public health departments, plan for and oversee the vaccine distribution and administration process. Stakeholders have acknowledged challenges early in Phase 1 distribution and dispensing, and note that these challenges will likely span all three phases identified in the CDC's COVID-19 Vaccine Playbook. We will interview all awardees to identify the reported challenges they are facing while distributing and dispensing vaccines. We will also ask awardees about effective strategies to mitigate those challenges, new challenges they anticipate, and how HHS can best support them in distributing and dispensing COVID-19 vaccines. In doing so, this review will provide HHS with timely and actionable information to address challenges associated with the COVID-19 vaccination efforts.

The Postal Service develops a range of financial projections as part of its financial planning. A financial projection is an estimate or forecast of a future situation or trend based on a study of present and historical trends. The main projection the Postal Service completes is the annual financial plan, which estimates revenue, volume, and expenses for each fiscal year. The fiscal year (FY) 2020 plan was approved by the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors in February 2020. On March 13, 2020, the President of the United States issued the national emergency declaration concerning the COVID...

On March 27, 2020, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) was enacted. It included $8 billion for direct payments to Indian Tribes and $522 million of direct appropriations to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) for COVID-19 response. Given this infusion of funding, we examined the impact of COVID-19 on the Indian detention system from April 1, 2020, to May 31, 2020, including the actions the BIA and the tribes have taken to respond to outbreaks of this virus, and how other longstanding challenges have affected the BIA’s response...