Reports

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act provides qualifying individuals with a recovery rebate (economic impact payment) of up to $1,200 (or $2,400 if married and filing jointly), plus up to $500 for each qualifying child. Congress added a number of exemptions concerning the economic impact payments within the CARES Act; however, it did not exempt child support debt. According to estimates, up to 10.5 million noncustodial parents are delinquent in their payment of child support and could have their economic impact payments intercepted. Based on the significant impact that the CARES Act will have on the collection of delinquent child support due to the intercept of economic impact payments, we determined that the focus of our audit would be to determine whether selected State(s) have policies and procedures in place to ensure that State child support programs collected and distributed delinquent child support under the Federal Tax Refund Offset program.

This report examines COVID-19 testing efforts for six federal health care programs during the first seven months following the declaration of a public health emergency in the United States. Published by the PRAC Health Care Subgroup, the report takes a detailed look at testing data in each of the programs that, when combined, provide benefits or care for about 64 million individuals. We hope this report will help policymakers as they continue to develop and refine their testing efforts related to testing accessibility and availability for at-risk populations, cost effectiveness, and...

Accurate, complete, and appropriately detailed race and ethnicity data for Medicare beneficiaries are critical to identifying and mitigating health disparities. As racial and ethnic disparities have emerged among those impacted by COVID-19, the availability and quality of data on race and ethnicity has garnered greater attention and scrutiny. This study will describe the extent to which Medicare's race and ethnicity data for beneficiaries are complete and accurate. We will compare these data to data from other sources. We will also determine the extent to which the Medicare beneficiary race and ethnicity data align with Federal data standards.

A commissioned study that identifies gaps in federal data sources and how we can close them to improve the quality of the information we provide to the public.

Economic and health impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have left States facing increases in new applications for health insurance through the Medicaid and ACA Marketplace programs. Responding to the pandemic, including meeting the new enrollment and oversight demands, has taxed State health care systems. This evaluation will assess efforts by the States and CMS to effectively enroll residents impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in Medicaid and ACA Marketplace plans. By identifying effective practices or any breakdowns in enrollment and oversight systems, this review would help improve the efficiency of State health insurance enrollment processes under both emergency and more typical conditions.

The PRAC released the Toolkit as a resource to assist federal, state, and local oversight agencies and professionals in conducting timely reviews and oversight of federal funding. The Toolkit provides OIGs and other oversight offices a set of guidelines, best practices, and lessons learned to help prepare these types of reports for CARES Act oversight and beyond.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, CMS implemented a number of waivers and flexibilities that allowed Medicare beneficiaries to access a wider range of telehealth services without having to travel to a health care facility. This review will be based on Medicare Parts B and C data and will identify program integrity risks associated with Medicare telehealth services during the pandemic. We will analyze providers' billing patterns for telehealth services. We will also describe key characteristics of providers that may pose a program integrity risk to the Medicare program.