2016 Year in Review

Transcript

[Tyler Daniels] OIG recovered more than five and a half billion dollars this past year.

We're talking about that and more of OIG's work in 2016, I'm Tyler Daniels and welcome to the HHS OIG's podcast.

[INTRO MUSIC]

In fiscal year 2016, OIG reported 844 criminal actions, 708 civil actions and more than $5.66 billion dollars in expected recoveries.

Let's take a closer look at some of OIG's work this past year.

In February, OIG's Office of Evaluation and Inspections released a Case Study on Healthcare.gov and CMS management of the Federal marketplace.

[Ruth Ann Dorrill] The poor launch was attributable to many avoidable organizational missteps, not just problems with the website technology.

[Tyler Daniels] That's one of the report's authors, Ruth Ann Dorrill.

[Ruth Ann Dorrill] And the report identifies factors that contributed to the website's poor launch and subsequent improvement, and lessons for employing core management principles in navigating program implementation and change. Particularly as it involves government working with IT contractors.

[Tyler Daniels] In March, OIG's Office of Audit Services released a series of audits that found that many state licensed daycare providers failed to meet health and safety requirements.

[George Nedder] In some of our site visits, we found some very dangerous conditions.

[Tyler Daniels] That's OIG's George Nedder.

[George Nedder] For example we found fire hazards, we found employees without background checks, we found individuals that were not employees and not approved by the state, living in the home.

[Tyler Daniels] In June, OIG participated in a nationwide $900 million healthcare fraud takedown, the largest health care fraud takedown in history.

[Sylvia Burwell] This is the largest arrest in Medicaid fraud strike force's history, both in terms of the number of individuals, the dollar amounts, and the number of districts.

[Tyler Daniels] HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell spoke about the takedown previously at a press conference.

[Sylvia Burwell] Together nearly 1,000 federal agents, employed advanced analytics and used cutting edge investigative work to find and expose 300 suspects.

[Tyler Daniels] In September, OIG levied $3 million dollar penalty to Kindred Health Care, Inc. for failing to comply with a previously instated corporate integrity agreement (CIA) between the company and the government. It is the largest penalty for violations of a CIA to date.

Inspector General Daniel Levinson at the time stated, "this penalty should send a signal to providers that failure to implement these requirements will have serious consequences".

Finally Throughout the year, OIG's auditors, evaluators and investigators testified before Congress six times, to inform legislatures and the public about OIG's work.

[Abhijit Dixit] During the last three fiscal years, OIG investigations have resulted in over $10.9 billion dollars, 2,856 criminal actions, 1,447 civil actions, and 11,343 program exclusions.

[Tyler Daniels] That's OIG Special Agent, Abhijit Dixit, in September, before the House Committee on Ways and Means.

[Abhijit Dixit] To accomplish our mission, we employ sophisticated data analytics, which is a valuable tool in detecting fraud, however it is necessary to combine the insights gained with field intelligence.

[Tyler Daniels] That's all we have time to cover today, but you can you can learn more about these topics and ALL of OIG's work on our website, OIG.HHS.GOV. I'm Tyler Daniels. Thanks for listening.