Review of Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Medicaid Information Technology Audit Resolution Process

Of 197 Medicaid-related information technology (IT) recommendations that the Office of Inspector General made to State Medicaid agencies in 16 final reports between October 1, 2002, and September 30, 2005, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) resolved 17 within the 6-month periods following issuance, as required by regulations.  CMS resolved an additional 124 recommendations after the 6-month periods had expired.  The remaining 56 recommendations had not been resolved as of June 30, 2007.  CMS did not design its procedures for resolving IT audit recommendations to ensure that the recommendations were resolved within 6 months.

We recommended that CMS establish procedures to ensure that all IT audit recommendations are resolved within 6 months of receiving an audit report.  CMS concurred with our recommendation and described steps it has taken to improve the audit resolution process.